Miraculous: Tales of the Wielders
by coccinelle-et-chaton
Summary: Nathaniel Kurtzberg was used to go by unnoticed. But when he came back home after a particularly bad day to find a strange wooden box on the bottom of his backpack, the last thing he expected was for his anonymity to end. After agreeing to bear the responsibility of becoming the wielder of the Fox Miraculous, he must help Ladybug and Chat Noir to retrieve the Miraculous of Insight.
1. The Mural

**a/n:** Do people still even do author's notes in here? Anyway, hey guys! I'm back on my bullshit with this site. I haven't been here in forever and I recently picked up this story again. Since it's published in AO3 I thought I'd bring it over here as well. I started writing in 2016 (procrastination at its finest) so of course there might be some inconsistencies.

But okay, hope you enjoy! Comments and feedback are appreciated!

Nathanael Kurtzberg was used to pass unnoticed. It's not that he couldn't stand out- as matter of fact, you could spot his red hair miles into the distance. It's just simply that he was not the type of person that got recognized a lot, but he was okay with that. Unlike the rest of his classmates, there really wasn't something characteristic about him. He wasn't smart like Max, or athletic like Kim. He lacked the brawl of Ivan, the suave demeanor of Nino, and the annoying perfection of Adrien. Sure, he got labeled into the artsy type along with Juleka, Mylene, and Marinette, but that hardly did anything for him. The only highlight of his creative career so far was that he got akumatized into an evil designer, and then again his entire class had been akumatized before, so by the time it was his turn they hardly batted an eye.

He sighed. Yeah, he was okay with that. To be frank, the idea of being surrounded by people twenty four hours a day, the seven days of the week like Adrien, Chlóe, or Alya, exhausted him. He enjoyed his anonymity. Though that didn't mean he didn't feel a little bit sorry for himself when his classmates forgot his birthday. Again.

Sixteen years and he was sure the chewing gum underneath his desk had gotten more recognition than he'd ever get in his life. Eh, well. No point getting worked up over that, he didn't want to give Hawkmoth the wrong idea.

Speaking of which, he decided to entertain himself drawing a little sketch of the latest akuma Ladybug and Chat Noir had defeated to pass the time. He witnessed the fight on television. As usual, Ladybug and Chat Noir worked seamlessly to defeat the akuma. Like a well-oiled clock. The fight hardly lasted more than ten minutes.

The victim called herself Mad Hatter, but really, she was a seamstress that had been laid off from one of Paris' biggest clothing brands, was a single mom, and had three kids in private school. Like every victim before her, she got her little note and profile on the seven p.m news.

Having been akumatized himself before, he couldn't help but feel for her. Before he fell prey to Paris' villain, he often looked down on those people that got akumatized before him. Ivan, for example. He was the first. He couldn't fathom how anyone could lose control of their emotions so bad that they were left at the mercy of some power-drunken man hidden behind a mask. Before it happened to him, Nath took pride in his ability to maintain his cool.

Then lo and behold, years of bearing Chlóe Bourgeois' teasing just like every other living soul, and how did he get akumatized? Over a crush. For Marinette. Granted, it was more complicated than that, and Chloé definitely had to do with it, but the thing that annoyed him the most was that he lost his control over something silly like a crush.

Remembering the face of everyone that day still made him burn with shame.

Stupid, so stupid.

 _Stop,_ he warned himself. _You don't want to get_ too _mad at yourself._

Ever since his akumatization he had been weary of his own feelings, he felt like he could no longer trust himself. Crippled, blindsided, altogether awful -but not too awful or else Hawkmoth could attack again-. The only thing that helped him sleep at night was the logic that everyone got mad, sad, and heartbroken. Everyone, including Ladybug and Chat Noir, and they never had been akumatized before. Besides, who's not to say that people who got akumatized before could get angry again? Not only it was probable, it was pretty damn certain, he was sure. So far no victim had ever fallen prey again, so maybe Hawkmoth's whole deal was like the chickenpox. You catch it once and then you become immune. He hoped so, but that didn't mean he was willing to test the theory. He'd never forgive himself if he ever put people in danger again simply because he couldn't hold his head together over a petty, spoiled brat such as Chloé Bourgeois.

He sighed wistfully as he sharpened the lines of Ladybug's figure. What made a superhero? What made those two special and why had they never gotten akumatized before? Maybe the Miraculous made them immune and that's why Hawkmoth wanted them. Or maybe the fact that nothing made them tick was the reason why they were superheroes in the first place. Either way, whatever they had, he wished he had been born with it, too. That luck to be picked, to be singled out and have someone approach him and say: you are special, you belong to something bigger than you.

After finishing touching up the spots on Ladybug's suit he moved onto Chat Noir and focused on his trademark cocky grin. He chuckled as he reflected on him. That guy was the embodiment of irony in so many ways and levels. First, the whole black cat theme. Yes, he could see it. There has to be a Ying for every Yang, if ladybugs were omens of good luck it only made sense that Ladybug's partner would be a black cat. But unlucky? Chat Noir could be many things, unlucky was not one of them. He was probably the luckiest guy in all of Paris- in all the world. Who else got to be a superhero? No one. The only bad luck that guy could ever have was that Ladybug seemed to be bent on keeping him chained to the friend zone. Boo hoo, what a nightmare.

Content with his work, he blew on the page and gently brushed it to get rid of the eraser exhaust that clung to the paper and added a little note:

 _Francine Gauthier. 36. Three kids ages 6, 11, and 13. Lost her job._

Another one to the collection. Ever since he was akumatized he started a little project. He drew a portrait of the akuma attack, then one of the person, and wrote why they were akumatized. He had this idea of buying some spray paint, sneak out at night, and make a mural in their honor- except himself, of course. That'd be too self-absorbed.

He felt like he owed it to these people, not only because he had been a brat about akuma victims before but also because now that he was on the other side of the fence he felt like they needed some recognition. These people were not villains, they weren't their demons. They were hurting, that was the reason why they got akumatized in the first place. And how were they remembered? As monsters, as less than human. That really bothered him. These were victims, people who had feelings, and fears, and hopes, and the ability to be good despite themselves. He firmly believed this. And If the people that surrounded them- most were in his class, anyway- were anything like the people that surrounded him, he was sure there was always that one jerk that simply wouldn't let it go. In his case it was Chloé and her minion, Sabrina, who kept poking fun at everyone, never minding the fact that they had been akumatized before, too.

Pair of idiots, those two.

 _Once a monster always a monster_. That's what Chloé said, and it made his blood boil.

 _It's not true. They're not monsters._ I'm _not a monster._

"So, does anyone have examples of canines? Perhaps mister Kurtzberg who is too busy to grant us an hour of his time?"

He was too busy scribbling down his calculations for the mural. He found a perfect empty wall the other day, the back of an abandoned warehouse. He took the measurements last week.

"Mister Kurtzberg?"

Geez. He pouted at the result for the number of cans. That was _a lot_ of paint.

"Nathanaël!"

He looked up with a gasp, causing a bit of bubbly giggling among his peers. What? What did she ask? Answer. To what? What class was this anyway? He looked at the board, then at his desk. Biology. Mammals. A presentation about the family of Canines. Think fast. Think fast!

"Uh… dogs, wolves, foxes… That's all I got."

The teacher squinted at him, evidently irritated that despite his distraction he was able to fend off. She walked over to his desk but before she was able to see what he was really doing, he inconspicuously pulled his notes from last class on top of his drawings. Being busted by Mrs. Mendeliev way too many times taught him to react fast.

"You should keep your desk more orderly, this isn't college anymore, Mister Kurtzberg."

The bell rang.

"He was probably doodling those horrible drawings again," Chloé sourly commented as he darted to the door.

"Shut up, Chloé," he snapped at her.

"What did you just say to me?" she hissed.

 _Don't give her your time of the day._

The uncomfortable whispering of his classmates didn't escape him, nor the fact that Marinette, Alya, Nino, and Agreste- the only ones who usually stood up against her, quickly glanced at the exchange.

"What you heard," he said clearly. He adjusted the band of his messenger bag to his shoulder. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to my locker."

He side stepped her and walked with an unmoved, dignified expression.

Chlóe scoffed. "Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?"

He rolled his eyes.

"I'm talking to you!"

He turned swiftly. "And I'm ignoring you. Get over it."

With more satisfaction that he was willing to admit, he left the room, able to catch the "Duuuuuude, respect," that came from Nino.

Breathe. Breathe. Argh!

He slammed his locker door after dropping his Biology book and picking up Chemistry. He was so annoyed he almost missed Marinette standing right beside him.

"Hello, Nath."

He yelped in surprise. "Marinette!"

"Sorry!" She blushed. "I didn't mean to startle you. I just- I didn't think- Sorry!"

He chuckled, warmed by Marinette's adorable flustering. "It's okay," he said.

"Are you okay? I saw you were a bit angry at Chloé."

He gave her a complicity glance. "One does not simply get 'a bit angry' at Chloé."

"Fair point. You okay though?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Beaming at him, she produced a medium white box engraved with gold initials that no doubt belonged to her family's bakery. "I brought you something, since it's your birthday and all."

"Oh. You remembered! Thank you, Marinette."

"It's kind of hard not to," she said, laughing sheepishly.

"Don't worry, I won't try to kidnap you this time around." He meant it as a joke, hopefully credible enough to hide the guilt he felt. Even Marinette remembered him for his akuma, nothing else.

"I'm glad." She sighed, exaggerating her relief. "Try having Chat Noir as your bodyguard."

"I'm pretty sure that would be the highlight of my life, to be honest."

Marinette laughed out loud. Nath didn't know half of it. "Ah, you say that because he's never been your bodyguard."

"Too flirty for you or what?"

She laughed again and shrugged silently to give him the benefit of doubt. "I'm just going to say I understand Ladybug a little bit better now. So you have plans for today?" Marinette asked to make sure he wouldn't spend his day alone. What really made her feel bad about Nath when he got akumatized wasn't precisely the akumatization itself, rather than he didn't really have anyone to spend his birthday with. No one should be alone in their birthday. Not if she could help it, at least.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to the ice cream parlor and then to that vintage arcade they opened next to it with Juleka and Rose. You and Alya are welcome to come by if you want."

The bell rang, announcing Chemistry Lab and Music Workshop was beginning for the tenth grade. Marinette hitched her bag over her shoulder and smiled. "I'll tell her about it. See you later!"

Nathanaël waved her goodbye quite proud with the way things resulted and marched merrily to the lab, unaware of the steely glare Adrien Agreste threw at him as he passed in front of him an Nino.

Adrien and Nino had been within hearing range and for a reason he couldn't quite describe, Adrien was annoyed out of his wits.

No. Actually, he _could_ pinpoint it. Marinette just more or less implied that he was annoying. Well, technically Chat Noir, but he'd be damned if he wasn't his truest when he talked with Marinette as Chat Noir. It shouldn't bother him. Really, it shouldn't. But he felt like he could Cataclysm the entire school right now.

"You okay dude?" Nino asked before they parted ways for their lessons.

"Huh?"

"You looked like you wanted to shove Nath off the Eiffel Tower."

It actually didn't sound like a bad idea.

He swallowed his rage and forced a smile. "What? No, ha, ha. I just remembered I didn't finish my lab report. Come on, we should get to class."

He lied. Through and through, he lied. But he couldn't admit to Nino's face that the fact Marinette payed attention to Nathanaël the way she usually paid attention to him made his stomach boil with acidic envy. Not only that, but he literally had no reason to feel this way.

She probably didn't mean anything by it, he reasoned. Marinette was a nice girl. The kind of girl that gives everyone a birthday gift. Then again, he didn't recall her congratulating him on his birthday.

He sighed. _She probably still hates me about that stupid gum on her chair._

Well that was an exaggeration. Marinette wasn't the type of person that held grudges- not for too long, anyway. And she had invited him to her house a couple times, for school reasons, but still. She had never invited other boys to her house. Or at least not that he knew of… And she gave him that charm, she never gave one of those to anyone else.

Really, there was no reason to feel jealous. He wasn't even in love with her. But he could not help himself. Especially because he heard from Nino, who heard from Alya, who went with Marinette, that they actually went to the ice cream parlor with Nath and the girls. He also heard from Nino, who hangs out with Kim, who is friends with Max, who talks to Nathanaël, that he had invited Marinette and Alya to the movies. Now, Adrien, despite his inexperience with girls, was not dumb. He knew exactly what Nathanaël was doing. He was courting one of them. And he knew for a fact it couldn't be Alya. Nino told him they kissed like three months ago and ever since then they've been hanging out together. So he just invited Alya to look aloof.

Ever since their movie date, Alya, Marinette, and Nathanaël- but mostly Marinette and Nathanaël- had been more chatty around each other. Turns out they actually did have a few things in common. Both were artists. Both liked Jagged Stone. Both were big fans of Chat Noir -even though Marinette would always poke fun at him. Both liked zombie movies. Both played Mega Strike III.

He saw in red. And not because of Ladybug. Nathanaël was stealing his friend!

"Mr. Agreste, where is your partner?" The Chemistry lab teacher, Mr. Morin asked him.

"Alya is sick," he told his teacher. "She didn't come to school today."

Mr. Morin nodded. "Very well. You may work with Mr. Kurtzberg today. His partner is also absent."

He felt his blood boil.

"I-I can work alone, Mr. Morin. There's no need, really. I'm very familiar with pH measuring."

"Today we'll be working with water buffers. Please join Nathanaël, Adrien."

Reluctantly, he picked up his things and walked to the table in the front, where Nathanaël was. He nodded at him in recognition, and Adrien reciprocated. Both took notes silently as their instructor went over the concept of water buffers. He noted down a few formulas they would need to calculate acid percentages, and after giving them the worksheets they would be using, Mr. Morin left the students to their devices.

"I'll go for the materials," Adrien said, trying to sound as civil as he could, and marched to the back of the classroom.

Nathanaël dutifully helped him to mount the universal support with the beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks they needed. To be frank, Nath didn't have a clue of what they were supposed to be doing, but he'd be damned if he let himself look stupid in front of this straight-A nerd.

Once they set up the experiment, there wasn't much left to do but to adjust the valve and count the drops of buffer until the water changed color.

They had two hours to kill.

Adrien found himself wishing for an akuma or some type of disaster to excuse himself. As for Nathanaël, the water drop was falling too slowly for his taste, so he reached the valve and turned it so it would drop at a faster pace.

"No! What are you doing?" Adrien immediately reproached. "You have to count them!" He returned the valve to its slow, steady dripping.

Nath sighed. "It's taking forever. Plus I did count."

"Oh yeah? How many droplets fell?"

"Eighteen."

"Well, I counted fifteen."

"So?"

"So we have to redo the experiment."

"What?" Nath said with disbelief. "No, we don't. Trust me. I counted."

"You won't know for sure. It's called scientific rigor."

Nath glared deadpan at Adrien. "We're not going to repeat it, dude. We only have like forty five minutes left."

"But the result will be wrong," he insisted.

"Let's just make an average."

"You can't just make an average!" he said, insulted. "You need to be sure."

"It's just an experiment, Agreste. Not a freaking atomic bomb."

"You pair of idiots do realize your water changed like, five minutes ago, right?" Alix interrupted.

She had to bite back a snort at Adrien's outraged expression. It's been two years since he started going to public school. How many times had he failed lab before? _Zero. Never. None._ His report card was a spotless one hundred over one hundred.

"You ruined it," he said.

Nath cursed under his breath. If there was a god, he knew he couldn't afford to keep failing his science subjects.

"We can make up a result," he suggested.

Adrien's eyes were so wide Nathanaël swore they were going to pop out of their sockets.

"Yeah, we can," he insisted, pushing Adrien away from their log book. "We just need to calculate drops per minute. Last time we had count there were three hundred seventy two drops. Plus five minutes of dripping… three hundred ninety six."

"You can't do that! That's not how it's supposed to be," Adrien scolded.

"Well, what do you suggest, Einstein?"

"We'll just tell the truth to Mr. Morin and hopefully he'll let us try again."

"Yeah, of course. You go ahead and try that…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm not saying you're gullible, but..."

"Well, I may be gullible but it's better than straight up lying!"

"Lying about what?" Mr. Morin had come back from the small office at the front of the room.

Adrien gulped and stared wide eyed at his teacher. "He-I…" He gulped. "Nathanaël and I lost count of the droplets and he was suggesting we extrapolate with the last count we had but I told him that's not okay."

Nathanaël glared at him.

"Forgery?" Mr. Morin asked Nathanaël with a quizzical eyebrow, who was as red as his hair in that moment.

"It's- it's not forgery," Nathanaël defended. "Just because we don't have the precise count doesn't mean we didn't learn how to do the process!" Well, Agreste did. He still didn't know what water buffers were good for. But the fuchsia of the water was a pretty shade, if he did say so himself.

Mr. Morin looked from one student to the other, well aware their irritation did have nothing to do with a failed science experiment. He had been working with teenagers long enough to know these two were rivals of sorts. Just like that Dupain girl and the Mayor's daughter.

"You can't expect to get perfect results all the time in science, Adrien," he started. "Sometimes you need to make do with what you have. Remember this is a creative activity despite the methodology."

He twisted his mouth into a pout but nodded.

"But rigor is also important," he told Nathanaël. "You can't find a clever way out of everything, Nathanaël. Sometimes you just have to follow the rules."

"So… you'll let us keep the results?" Adrien asked.

"I'll grade you over a maximum of seventy."

Heck, so long as it wasn't a fifty Nath was good with it. Adrien had a word or two to say about it, though.

"But why?" he asked. "You just said we both were right."

"Yes, but what good is that to me if you don't know how to work in a team?"

Work in a team? _Work in a team?_ He was Chat Noir, for all that's holy! If there was anyone in Paris who knew how to "work in a team" that was him! That stubborn ginger! If he just had listened to him none this wouldn't have happened.

The bell rung to mark the end of the school day.

After discharging his anger on the poor glassware, Adrien marched out of the lab to meet with Nino, who coincidentally was walking with Marinette. She turned bright red as soon as he approached them and met him with an almost inaudible "Hi, Adrien."

"Woah dude, what happened?"

"What?" He didn't even notice he was frowning.

Nino quirked an eyebrow at him as Nathanaël passed by them and Adrien glared at him like he was Hawkmoth. "Yo, you got beef with Nath or something?"

"Why would I?" Adrien said, procuring a healthy dose of sarcasm. "It's not like he made me ruin my Chemistry score or anything."

Nino snorted. "Dude. It's just a lab."

He knew that. Adrien was aware, and he also knew he was behaving childishly. But something about Nathanaël's non-assuming demeanor just pushed his buttons. He needed someone to slap him across the face with the definition of responsibility. Hard.

"It's not that," Adrien said. "It's just that if he just had listened to me, we wouldn't have failed. He would have had the score he needed and mine would've still be fine. But no. No. He just couldn't follow the rules."

Nino shrugged not paying attention to the blonde's tantrum and slung an arm around him. "Relax, man. It's not the end of the world. Here, how about you, Mari, and I go grab a smoothie? Come on, stop frowning or your model baby face will get wrinkles."

Marinette looked at Nino with a wide, yet terrified smile when Adrien wasn't looking. He winked at her. _Yep, you owe me, Mari._

It had taken him a few more days than he anticipated but he finally went through it. Friday on his way back home from school, Nathanaël stopped by a hardware shop and bought eight hundred euros worth of spray paint. He had four new akuma victim additions ever since Francine. If he worked four hours every night nonstop, the mural should be done in a couple of days. He hid his materials in the basement, which was so dreadfully spooky and leaky no tenant ever went down there unless absolutely necessary.

The smell of homemade ratatouille hugged his nose as he opened the door to the tiny apartment he lived in with his mother and his older brother.

"Bonsoir, mon petit chiot!" He heard his mother call him from the kitchen. He went to greet her with a kiss. She still hadn't changed from her work clothes and looked even more tired than when she left home that morning. Nonetheless, Sylvie met her son with a bright smile, it contrasted the heavy bags under her eyes.

"Bonsoir maman."

"How was school today?"

Nathanaël exhaled, feeling the stress of riding the metro at peak hour finally slide off his shoulders as he slumped down on a chair by the counter. "Same old. Kinda got into an argument."

The red-haired woman quirked an eyebrow at her son as she skillfully stirred the sizzling food on the pan. "Well, that's a first. Should I be worried?" Sylvie knew it wasn't like Nath to lose his temper, let alone get in a fight with someone.

"No, it's just this freaking kid, Adrien Agreste."

"That model boy?"

He nodded. "He was my lab partner today and he was being paranoid, is all. He just got the best of me."

Sylvie smiled at her boy and ruffled his hair as she set dinner in front of him. "Just remember kindness is always the best policy."

He nodded, trying to bite off a growl. "Is Rémy home yet?"

"He'll be home late. He has a project to turn in tomorrow."

Nath nodded. He was hoping Rémy would be home. His brother was the only one who knew about his mural project- he told Rèmy everything, even about his crush for Marinette- and he was more excited about it than Nathanaël himself. Not to mention he promised to cover for him, which got him second-guessing about whether or not it was a good idea to begin the mural today.

After dinner he excused himself to his room to reluctantly work on his homework. It couldn't have been more than an hour when his mother got a phone call. She sounded stressed.

"What?" she exclaimed. "No, no! She ordered tulips, not geraniums! Of course not, that messes up the entire decoration." She sighed. "The cake what? No, call the bakery they couldn't just- ugh. No, you know what. I'm on my way. Don't worry, we can handle this."

She hung up.

Nathanaël's mother was in the event planning business. Ever since she was hired to plan a gala at the Grand Hotel du Paris, she had more work than ever. It was a good thing by all means, Nath's family wasn't exactly poor but a few more euro to help Rèmy with university never hurt. Unfortunately, this also meant Nath spent more and more time alone.

"Baby, I have to go fix a few things for tomorrow's wedding," Sylvie said, poking her head into Nathanaël's room.

Nath nodded. "Okay, maman."

"Don't wait up for me, okay? I'll send you a message."

"Be safe."

He heard her grab her trench coat, put on her heels again, and close the door. Then, a silence so clear you could hear a pin drop. It had been this way ever since dad left. His voice used to fill up the entire apartment with laughter and jokes, he'd always have a witty prank to pull on Nath and Rèmy. He said his house did not tolerate boring sticks in the mud. Which was probably why he left. He got bored of them, they weren't good enough. Because one day, Nath came home to find his side of his parents' drawers completely empty.

Mr. Kurtzberg called from time to time, Christmas, birthdays, and such. But Nath didn't care for pity calls, he was still angry at him. Last time he saw him, he was walking with a woman much younger than his mom, pushing a stroller. As far as he was concerned, he had no father.

He sighed and spun around in his desk chair, making a blur of his otherwise familiar room to try and distract himself from bad thoughts.

Like every other teenager, Nathanaël found safety in his room and over the years he had turned it into quite the physical expression of himself. The walls didn't stay the same colors for too long. Right now he was going through a Van Gogh appreciation phase, and he tried his hand at making a painting of the Seine at night mimicking his style.

He had all kinds of small sculptures, clay figures, and chiseled marble that cluttered his desk. One of the walls was completely plastered with sketches of people, things, and places Nathanaël found exceptional. No piece of furniture was exempt of acrylic paint stains, and his shelf stacked collections of used sketchpads, paint veils and cases, brushes, sponges, and other materials.

His eyes fixed on the sketch wall, onto his collection of akuma victims. He looked at the space-themed clock hung next to his window. Eight fifteen. If he was going to do it, he better do it now.

He grabbed a black hoodie, his painting backpack, and snuck out of the house into the chilly March night. The warehouse was a short fifteen minute walk away from his house but Nathanaël was wary. This part of town wasn't especially pleasant. No thug in his right mind tried to get away with crime at night ever since Ladybug and Chat Noir started defending Paris. It was well known they patrolled practically every night like hawks hunting prey, but that didn't mean there wasn't one or two dimwits that didn't get the memo. That or feral dogs, which were quite common around abandoned warehouses like the one Nath was headed to. They hunted in packs, and having come across them a couple times when he was younger, Nath had no intention of staying if there were any lurking around the mural. He fought his nerves, however, and arrived to the warehouse in one piece.

The far amber glow of the active factories and warehouses in the vicinity helped Nath get a clear sense of where everything was. One thing was to come by during the day and another very different was to try and mix the colors right under amber light.

He produced the spray cans and the drawing guide he made for the mural, then resolved to start sketching the bottom part. He still did not know how he'd get to the top of the wall, but he tried not to think too much about the prospect of having to climb.

He studied the empty wall, placing a hand on the chipped surface and sighed. He shook the paint and inhaled.

"Hope I don't fuck it up."

His first strokes were shaky, unsure. He kept glancing back thinking that someone was watching him, but he never found anything.

The first two hours passed and he had successfully finished the base of the piece's bottom, when he felt something that made him jump and curse at the top of his lungs. He stumbled back over a dense, muscular bulk. A curious stray dog with brown patches of fur large enough to rip off his face, that sniffed around his bag and onto the wall. Nathanaël gulped.

"Sh-shoo! Go away."

The dog fixed his eyes on him and cocked his head before sniffing him.

"No, go. Go! I don't want to be your friend."

The dog breathed through his mouth, giving the impression he was smiling at Nath as he waved his tail.

"Go!" He shook his hands at him, hoping to scare him off or startle him, but the dog thought he was playing so he ran about looking for whatever thing he thought Nath had thrown.

Nathanaël gulped, glad that he seemed like he had no interest in coming back. He stood up and continued his work unperturbed until he reached for a new can of paint and found that it was all drooled over. The mongrel was licking them like popsickles.

"No, what are you doing?" Nath shouted. "Stop, you stupid dog!"

Unfortunately, the dog mistook his anger for playtime again, and snatched Nath's bag.

"Gimme that!" he chased him around. "Ugh, come back! No!"

Nath tripped and saw how the dog ran away into the shadows. Growling and with sore knees, he sat up.

"I can't believe a dog just stole all my savings," he muttered to himself, feeling pathetic. He turned to the mural and let go a defeated sigh. "At least I tired."

Again, the sensation that someone was watching tickled the hairs on the back of his neck, only this time it wasn't a hunch. A figure stood among the shadows, precisely in the direction where the dog had ran. From where Nathanaël stood, it looked small and had a cane.

He stayed frozen on the spot, not daring to breathe. He could feel his heart trying to break free from his rib cage and a cold sweat dampened his temples. He couldn't decide what was worse: that it might be an akuma or that it might be a serial killer.

The second the figure began approaching him he scrambled to his feet and darted back to his house, running faster than he ever had ran in his life.

The man, who had been successfully spying on Nath until the moment the dog stole his belongings, emerged from the shadows to take a better look at the teenager's work.

"He has a good heart," he said.

"But he has suffered. Anger is latent in him," a soft voice countered.

"In all of us, Wayzz. In all of us."


	2. Graffiti Dog

The next morning Nath had to spend a good half hour convincing himself to go and buy some milk. His mother was lost in a deep sleep sprawled on the couch, and his brother had come home around five a.m. to keep working on his project, so although he could, he didn't dare ask him to walk him to the store. He didn't have the heart, plus he couldn't stand the idea of being a coward. His growling stomach eventually brought him to reason logically, he'd have to pass through the dang warehouse alone eventually, anyway. What better moment than under broad daylight?

His sneakers crunched under the loose pebbles that wore off the old pavement, a sound he tried to focus on to counter the knot in his stomach as he passed through the mural. To his surprise, the dog from last night was sunbathing right next to it and wiggled his tail at the sight of Nath.

"Ugh, no… go away, go away, don't follow me…"

The dog hurried to catch up with him. He carried Nath's bag on his snout and deposited it right at his feet. Nath looked incredulously at the canine, who breathed with his mouth open, again "smiling" at him. There was a note inside the bag. "Friends are good company, keep going."

"Because that's not creepy at all," Nath said. "I suppose you didn't write this, did you?"

The dog whimpered.

"Thought so."

He let him walk with him all the way to the store and hoped that he'd get distracted or find something more interesting than walking by Nath's side. But the dog dutifully waited for him on the sidewalk and stopped following him when they reached Nathanaël's building. He barked twice, did a little turn and then laid down in the garden.

Nath wasn't especially gullible when it came to omens and magical things, but let hell freeze over if that wasn't one of the weirdest things he had ever seen in his life. After having breakfast, showering, and texting a little with Max and Marinette, he decided to give the mural another go. It was Saturday and hardly any people took the warehouse's shortcut. Plus the dog was still outside.

"Went to the library," he wrote on the little whiteboard on the fridge, and was on his way.

Nathanaël worked on the mural the rest of the weekend and Monday night, the dog making him company at all times, except when he found a cat to chase around or some even of the sort. He brought an old wooden ladder he found lying on the basement to work on the upper parts of the piece. It felt like climbing onto death itself, but he was glad to see the final result was worth it.

He sat with a sigh next to the dog to share a sandwich with him. "What do you think, Graffiti? Looks good, huh? I just need to put some shades around the top over there."

Graffiti barked.

"Well," Nath said dusting his pants off and stuffing the rest of the ham-and-cheese sandwich on his mouth. "Let's finish up, it's getting late."

He just had turned on his flashlight and hadn't reached the spray can yet when the sound of rusty metal struggling to move roared above his head, closely chased by a deep rumble and a tremor on the ground. Graffiti growled. The demon, whatever it was, was large enough to make the structure of the warehouse shake violently. Nathanaël was hurrying to pick up his things when the akuma veered to the right, emerging from the back of the warehouse: Ten stories worth of wire, cables, and spare metal pieces. Its body resembled a skeleton, its hands were crooked like demonic claws. Nath gulped and paced back cautiously, so as to not give away the fact he was right underneath the akuma but Graffiti, sensing the danger barked at him and snarled, promising a bite.

The bloodshot eyes and sinister grimace of the akuma met Nathanaël. It was one of the worst he had ever seen.

"Oh no," he whispered.

The akuma growled when Graffiti attempted to bite off its toe.

"Graffiti, no!" Nathanaël tackled the dog just in time to evade the akuma's swat at it. He tumbled over the floor a couple of times, scattering spray paint everywhere. Startled, and finally aware of his place in the food chain, Graffiti took a run for it favoring self-preservation instead of the stubborn little red-hair who for some reason thought it was a good idea to stand petrified out in the open.

Nathanaël trembled, knowing it was too late to run. So much for man's best friend.

"Le-leave me a-alone!" He demanded in a mousy voice, pointing the flashlight at him.

"NO LIGHT ALLOWED!" The akuma snarled baring the nails and screws he had for teeth. It roared, extending its arms and absorbing every wave of energy around him, depleting the factories surrounding them them and submerging the area in a void of darkness. The only source of light were his eyes, which glowed with an electric blue, and the occasional lightning sparks that flashed around his head.

It only took a fraction of a second before the akuma fired at Nathanaël, and he sprinted around the warehouse. He panted, desperate to find shelter as the akuma followed him. He remembered one of these old warehouses had a broken window, now if he could just find it before he got himself killed. But the light wasn't enough, and so long as there was darkness, he was doomed.

"Help!" he shouted. "Someone please, help me! LADYBUG, CHAT NOIR!"

"NO LIGHT!" the akuma roared, discharging the energy he had collected onto the ground right behind Nath and momentarily igniting the night with blinding white.

"Yeah? Well then, stop firing!" Nathanaël growled, only earning himself a more vicious attack.

He yelped and threw all obstacles he found in his way, boxes, ladders, wood, anything was valid so long as it slowed down the akuma long enough for him to devise a plan or have Ladybug and Chat Noir come to the rescue, preferably the latter.

 _Not very smart, Nath. Not very smart at all._

"Help, someone!"

Two slim shadows passed atop him, momentarily blocking the moonlight. One propelled itself with an extendable stick and ran on all fours when it landed on the roofs and the other gracefully swung from building to building.

"My lady, down there! I see them! The akuma is attacking someone!"

The akuma had just fired again, managing to set a lone wooden beam on fire. Nathanaël saw the shadows of Ladybug and Chat Noir perched on the building behind the akuma and knew they would need more space to fight him.

He was cornered against a dead-ended alley, with the akuma slowly approaching as he now held the beam on fire.

It growled again, ready to fire, and that's when he saw it. The distraction. One of his spray cans laid on the floor.

"Get away from me!" Nathanaël screamed, earning the pair time as they stealthily sneaked closer to the akuma.

"Or what?" the akuma said in its low, demonic voice, kneeling to have a better look at Nath. "You'll fight me, Nathanaël Lefebvre?" He laughed.

Nathanaël widened his eyes, knowing this wasn't the akuma talking, but Hawkmoth himself.

"No. But they will." With an agility that could only be result of the pounding adrenaline in his bloodstream, he snatched the spray can and sprayed it at the fire, and onto the akuma's face.

The akuma cried in pain and fell onto his back, giving leeway for Nathanaël to sprint away from the scene and Ladybug and Chat Noir to charge at him.

He remained hidden under a truck throughout the whole ordeal, only daring to poke his head out when the akuma shot electricity at the pair.

There was a lot of shouting and rumbling. The sound that chilled his blood however, was the high-pitched scream of Ladybug that followed shortly after the thunder of the akuma's lightening.

"Cataclysm!"

"Chat Noir!"

From under his refuge, Nathanaël saw Chat Noir fall with a dry thud against the floor, unconscious. Moments later, the akuma followed, as Chat managed to destroy the structure of the akuma's feet.

"No more evildoing for you," Ladybug said darkly as she cleansed the butterfly. "Miraculous Ladybug!" she screamed with haste, desperate to have the sea of tiny ladybugs wash away all the harm. The light came back and the fire was dissipated. The akuma was then engulfed in dark bubbles that revealed the form of the victim as they disappeared.

Nathanaël gasped, horrified. It was his brother.

"Rèmy!" he exclaimed, and scrambled out of his hiding spot to meet with him.

"Nathanaël?" he said, evidently disoriented. "Where am I? What are you doing here?"

"Chat?... " Ladybug said, trying not to sob as she cradled her partner's still unconscious body. "Chat Noir… kitty?"

Nathanaël averted his eyes when Rèmy tried to find answers with him. "I… I did that?"

Nathanaël simply nodded.

"Mmm… m'lady?" Chat Noir said finally, with a raspy voice, as he incorporated back into consciousness. "What happened?"

"You stupid cat!" She said, her voice muffled against his neck. "How many times have I told you? You have to be careful!"

Chat sighed, simply relaxing into the hug. "It was either you or me, Ladybug."

"I don't care!"

Nathanaël felt uncomfortable being there. It wasn't his place to witness Ladybug and Chat Noir's exchange, he felt like he was crossing a line, invading a very delicate kind of privacy. He nudged at his brother, who didn't seem to have the same idea.

"Come on, we have to go."

The boys stood up, dusted themselves off, and it was then when Ladybug finally acknowledged their presence.

"Sorry for all the trouble," Rèmy said. "I feel terrible. You've had to deal with both of us now."

She shook her head. "It's nothing. I'm glad you're safe."

"It's our job," Chat Noir said, giving them a smile.

"Is there anything we can do for you?" said Rèmy.

"No," Ladybug answered. "We're-"

Beep beep. Chat Noir's ring flashed.

"I have to go now." He grunted as he struggled to get up.

"You need to rest for a moment, Chat."

"My house is too far away from here," he explained. "I need to go before I'm detransformed."

"You can hide in that warehouse until you recover," Nathanaël pointed at the one where he was working on. "It's safe, I come by here every night."

"Thank you." He bit his lip and scratched the back of his neck for a second. "Is there a chance you might have some Camembert with you?"

"Camembert?" Nathanaël chimed, unable to hide his confusion.

He nodded. "I…uh, I need it to recharge my powers."

"Yeah, totally. Don't worry, Mr. Chat Noir. We'll find you Camembert!" Rèmy said.

"And if you could find some cookies, too, please," Ladybug said. "I'd appreciate it."

"Cookies too, Miss Ladybug."

"We don't have Camembert at home," Nath hissed at him as Rèmy pulled him away from the pair. "And it's crazy expensive! Where are we gonna find Camembert at this time of the night?"

"Hey. When Chat Noir saves your sorry ass and asks for some Camembert in return the only thing you say is, 'Yes Mr. Noir. In a platter or a plate?' Come on, there's a convenience store by the bus stop."

Rèmy dragged Nathanaël to the store and bought three packs of Camembert cheese, both were silent through the oddly mundane activity because the alternative was to small talk about how their day had been. And apparently, the day had gone so terribly wrong that Rèmy's only conversation topic would be explaining why he got akumatized. That was a talk they'd have inevitably so Nathanaël didn't see the need to hurry it.

The walk back was brisk but quiet. Quiet enough that they could hear it even though they were still a good kilometer away from the warehouse. A voice, a laughter that echoed across the night. And a figure, a girl, floating around the area looking for something. Nathanaël gasped, feeling how his stomach sunk.

"Quick, hide!" he hissed and pulled his brother behind a truck.

"What's going on?" Rèmy asked, poking his head out of the car.

"An akuma. That can't be! Hawkmoth just released one…"

"What? That doesn't look like an akuma. She's like, one of them. Come on, she can't be that dangerous-."

"Rèmy, no. Stop! I know her. That's Lila Rossi, she got akumatized into an evil superhero. She's in my class." At his brother's completely clueless and slightly irritated expression, he added deadpan, "Volpina."

"Oh!"

Nathanaël rolled his eyes.

They hunched down against the truck as Volpina flew over them.

"Come out, come out from wherever you are!" She sing sang. "I promise I'll be nice. I know you're not transformed. You're useless."

Nathanaël and Rèmy looked wide-eyed at each other, both smart enough to reach the same conclusion. Volpina was right. They needed to recharge in order to fight her.

"We need to give this to them," Nath muttered.

"Yeah, but how?"

"Well, don't look at me, you're the engineer. Aren't you supposed to be ingenious?"

"Not the best time to bring that up."

Nath cursed under his breath. There had to be something they could do. But it had to be fast. It had to be fast, and it had to work. Confronting Volpina was obviously out of the question, but if anything, despite her powers, there still was a human element within her.

Nathanaël spotted a full trash container to their left. "We're going to trick her."

They slithered out of their hiding place and grabbed as much garbage as they could. Trying to be silent, they modeled a figure of Ladybug and Chat Noir to the best of their abilities. Pulling his hoodie over his head, Nath handed his flashlight to Rèmy.

"Flash it against that wall and make it look like it's them. I'll go give them the cheese."

"What if she spots you?"

"She won't. At least not if you do it right."

Rèmy turned on the light and did quite a terrible impression of Chat Noir.

"Uh… I'm Chat Noir!"

Nathanaël waited for Volpina to see the diversion. Hearing his brother's poor attempt, he turned around with a grimace and slapped his forehead. Well, that was one plan under the bridge.

"He doesn't sound like that!" Nath hissed. "Make a pun, something!"

"I'm doing the best I can!"

Nath sighed and cleared his throat. "Hey you! Mongrel!"

That did the trick. Volpina instantly whipped her head around, and immediately spotted the shadow of Chat Noir against the wall.

"You can't be!" Volpina gasped, but flew to check nonetheless.

Making the most out of her distraction, he sprinted to the warehouse and slipped in through a service door that was thankfully unlocked. In contrast to Volpina's ugly shouting outside, the inside of this place was eerily quiet.

His footsteps echoed, bouncing off the corners and merging with the light dripping of faulty pipes.

Faint amber light from the night outside filtered in, casting a weak shadow of his person and the abandoned machinery on the cracked concrete.

"It's Nath," he announced to the nothingness, pretending he didn't see the shadow standing on a staircase to the second level, nor the other one, on the opposite side of the factory. He gulped as intimidation turned his feet into lead. These were the two heroes of Paris, utterly and completely defenseless before him. Yet, there was a certain power, even in their normal selves, that made him a bit afraid.

"I, uh… I brought your cheese and your cookies. I'm gonna leave them here. It's cheap cheese but I hope it does the trick… My brother is out there so, uh, not to rush you or anything but it'd be great if Volpina doesn't kill him."

He set the bag on the floor and turned around. "Yeah."

"Nathanaël," he heard the voice of Chat Noir, which was weirdly familiar without his transformation. "Thank you."

"We owe you," Ladybug said, also with a voice Nathanaël could swear had heard before.

Nathanaël shrugged, pushing away the whirlwind of emotions that ebbed in him. Ladybug and Chat Noir thanked him! He actually helped Ladybug and Chat Noir and he did not get killed in the process!

"It's nothing. You do it all the time for us."

He heard footsteps approaching him but he did not dare turn around to see. He knew it was them. His heart beat thunderously, threatening to make him hyperventilate.

"This isn't my normal Camembert," a tiny, screechy voice complained.

"Just eat Plagg," Chat Noir scolded him.

Plagg? Who's Plagg? Nath didn't recall Ladybug and Chat Noir having sidekicks. Maybe he never noticed, maybe they were always were there.

"Plagg" munched his way through the packs of cheese while a second, silent being crunched cookies. There were so many questions Nathanaël wanted to ask. Who was Plagg? Did Ladybug and Chat Noir knew each other behind the mask? Why did Plagg eat cheese? Why did the other one eat cookies? Had they ever met Nathanaël before by any chance? Because holy damn, they sounded exactly like two of his classmates now that he paid attention. How come Hawkmoth released a second akuma? Why did Lila get akumatized again? Was that even possible? Did that mean no one was safe from him? Did that mean he wasn't safe?

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden flash of green right behind him and a second flash, a red one, further back on the stairs.

"You should probably stay here until we take care of Volpina," Ladybug said. "We'll bring your brother back, don't worry."

Nathanaël held his breath as he heard their voices muffled by the factory's structure, menacing Volpina to give up. There was a lot of shouting, their fighting resonated on the roof. Nathanaël could make out the difference between Chat Noir's baton slamming against the metal versus Ladybug's yoyo bouncing against it.

"Lucky Charm!"

"Nath you there?"

He gasped. Rèmy had entered the factory without him noticing.

"Yeah. I'm here." He emerged from his hiding spot under the stairs of a machine's structure. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Chat Noir escorted me here."

Nath nodded. "How are they doing up there?"

"Frankly I was too scared to stop and ask them."

"Right."

Silence.

"So, uh, what happened?" Nath finally brought himself to ask. They were stuck in there for an indefinite time. Might as well tackle the elephant in the room while he could.

Rèmy sighed, knowing what his brother referred to. "I don't think I want to talk about it, Nath. I'm really sorry."  
"It happens to the best of us."

"That sucks, though. I hate it."

"What?"

"Being so… helpless. It's not fair. What does this mean, like, do I have to watch what I feel from now on simply because of stupid Hawkmoth?"

Remembering Ladybug and Chat Noir were currently fighting a victim that had been akumatized twice, he simply sighed. "I used to think not. But now… I mean, she's been through it twice."

Rèmy fell silent for a moment and then finally muttered, "I failed, Nath. I failed this course twice and now.. Now they might expel me out of the program." He sighed. "I worked so hard…"

"Is that why you got akumatized?"

"Yeah… I just felt so angry at myself. So frustrated. I think about it now and it still makes my blood boil."

"Then don't. Don't think about it if you can't control it. That's what I do."

"You think I could get akumatized again?" Rèmy asked, his voice quivering with fear. "I don't want to be a monster."

"I don't think you are. You're just human. Everyone has a monster inside, I think. It's just up to you whether or not it comes out."

He chuckled. "Are you sure you're sixteen? You sound like Mister Miyagi."

Nathanaël laughed. "That's just what I think. Do you think they don't get angry?" He nodded at the roof. "There must be something they do different, right? Not to get akumatized."

"Nah bro, they're different. They're Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"But not all the time. They have to get sad and angry, too. Everyone does."

"Time to de-evilize! Bye-bye little butterfly, Miraculous Ladybug!"

Nath and Rèmy smiled at each other, confident that the worse had passed. Perfectly timed, they bumped each other's fists, synchronizing with Ladybug and Chat Noir's victorious "Pound it!"

Nath and Rèmy emerged from the factory to see a grinning Ladybug and Chat Noir, and a disoriented but angry Lila.

Nath saw it happen. The akuma, a new akuma, settling on Lila's neck.

"Watch out!" Nath screamed before Lila pushed Ladybug and Chat from the roof.

Gladly, Chat had reacted fast enough to grab Ladybug and buffer the fall for both. Nathanaël had never seen fear on Paris' heroes, which only gave leeway for him to invite his own terror in. His faith, his hope, crumbled as he saw how Lila stood on the roof unfazed .

"I will destroy you, Ladybug," she menaced. "I don't care how long it takes. I will steal your Miraculous and I will finish you!"

She flew away before Chat or Ladybug could stop her. It wasn't the wisest thing to do, anyway. Their jewels had begun beeping and the sky roared with thunder, menacing with heavy rain.

Nath and Rèmy approached the heroes shyly.

"Are you okay?" Rèmy asked as Chat Noir got up and lent his lady a hand.

"What are you two still doing here?" Ladybug said gently, but with a touch of reprimand.

"We waited out the battle," Rèmy explained. "That had never happened before, right? Three akumas in a row?"

Ladybug sneaked a worried glance at her cat. "No."

"Does that mean we can get akumatized again?" Nathanaël asked them.

Adrien felt compassion towards the utter fear in Nathanaël's voice. Perhaps he was a dick to Adrien, but to Chat and Ladybug, he proved himself as one of the bravest citizens he had ever seen. And he'd be the first to admit that perhaps he had been pegging Nathanaël wrong this whole time.

"We don't know, but don't be scared," Chat said. "Ladybug and I will protect you."

Ladybug gasped when she noticed the mural. Gaping at it, she approached and gently pressed her hand against it. It was a beautiful thing Nath had created. The strokes had a softness to them and the portraits were cartoonish but possessed an unexplainable humanity about them. It was their eyes, Ladybug decided. Nathanaël captured their eyes well. The kindness, the innocence. It had never occurred to her, that the akumas she fought on a daily basis had a life. Of course, they were citizens, but as Ladybug she had to defend her anonymity and that also meant not delving too much into the victim's life. But Nath had that luxury and had used it well. It was a very gentle, beautiful expression of compassion.

"You made this?" she asked him, noticing the stains on his hands and his clothes.

"I.. Uh, well. Uh… It's supposed to be a secret."

She gave him a warm smile. "We know how to keep secrets, right mon minou?"

Chat Noir nodded. "We do, my lady. But uh… a little advice, maybe you should sign it."

"I don't want people to know I made it."

Chat and Lady grinned at each other, enjoying the irony. "Well, make up a name! An alter ego," Ladybug encouraged. "We won't tell."

Nath tapped his chin thinking for a good name and he smiled, remembering his companion from the last few days.

He kneeled to the bottom of the piece and shook a can of black paint. He drew the profile of a dog and underneath scribbled "Graffiti Dog."

"What does that mean?" Chat Noir asked, a bit irked at the fact he used dog as a pseudonym as opposed to a cat.

"An inside joke."

The Miraculouses beeped for the third time. "We have to go now," Ladybug said. "Thank you for your help. You were our heroes tonight."

She threw her yoyo and Chat Noir extended his baton, both to be swallowed by the night.

They were welcomed home by a frantic, extremely exasperated version of their mom, who demanded to know where they were. Still hyped and stupidly courageous, Nath confessed about the mural and told his mom Rèmy had been with him to check he wouldn't hurt himself.

Glad for the cover, Rèmy boasted about how beautiful it was and the fact Nath had really outdone himself.

"You can't just sneak out of the house like that!" Sylvie scolded them. "There's a reason you have phones! Something could have happened to you, for god's sake!"

"We were safe, ma," said Rèmy. "Besides Ladybug and Chat Noir keep Paris-"

"Oh don't give me that! Not even Ladybug and Chat Noir can keep everyone safe. You have to be more careful, and responsible! The both of you have school tomorrow and it's two a.m." She sighed. "You're grounded. You'll come home directly from school this week. Now go to bed, it's late."

Knowing better than to argue back, Rèmy and Nath marched quietly to their rooms, but not without sneaking a complicit smile to each other. Paris' heroes had heroes of their own. And they were two of them!

"Thank you, tomato," Rèmy said. "I owe you big time."

Nath sighed, feeling lightheaded and enormously awed as he spun around in his desk chair. This was probably one of the scariest, yet most amazing nights of his life. Chat Noir and Ladybug liked his mural! And even though no one in Paris would know it was his creation, they did. They were in in the secret with him. That made him smile.

He didn't know how, but the next day everybody knew Nathanaël had been involved in last night's akuma. All thanks to Alya, apparently. The girl had eyes and ears in all of Paris. So much so that not only she knew he had been in the attack, but she also knew of the mystery artist Graffiti Dog, who had done a beautiful tribute to all that is good and worthwhile in Paris. The mural had struck such a sensible chord that it was making it into local news.

More than flattered about the attention for his involvement in the akuma attack, he felt a bit restless. He really didn't want people to know he was the creator of the mural, but yeah, he'd be the first to admit it was nice to have people recognize his work. And what better way than anonymously? To have the art speak by itself.

"So what happened? Did you see Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Alya nagged him.

"The usual," Nath said. "Akuma, they came, they saved the day. I just happened to be in the middle of it."

"Volpina was there, you know why?"

Nath shrugged. "Do I look like Hawkmoth to you? No, of course not."

"Did you see Graffiti Dog?"

Nath tried hard to keep his face straight. In retrospect, his curtly, "No," sounded more suspicious.

Throughout the day, and the following to come, Nath went to school to be swarmed by all the avid fans and Alya, who waited with new batches of questions every day.

He didn't like to be at the center of things, he liked his anonymity. He didn't know what to do to get rid of his harassers. He'd try having lunch in the bathroom, hiding in the library, in empty cupboards, but nothing made them sway.

"Guys, can't you see that bothers him?" Agreste finally said after the third day of constant inquisition, as they were all in study hall.

He didn't know what he hated the most: The fact that just because Agreste said so they stopped bothering him, that he now owed him a favor, or that ever since the questions and attention stopped he always caught two people inconspicuously staring at him: Marinette, and Agreste himself.

Those two knew something.

It went against his better judgement to find exactly what it was, but they didn't fool him. They knew something.


	3. New Fox in Town

Alya's breath was ragged behind the camera. Her shaky pulse distorted the image of the latest mural yet. She had taken it upon herself to investigate up close the newest addition to Paris' mysteries. He called himself Graffiti Dog, an anonymous artist that made a point of finding abandoned locations to bring them back to life with murals dedicated to Ladybug, Chat Noir, and akuma victims. Alya discovered his first mural on a factory park on the outskirts of the sixteenth district: a heartfelt piece dedicated to every akuma victim. She thought nothing of it at first, until she spotted a second mural in a shady alley, in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower. This one was the shadow of Ladybug and Chat Noir guarding Paris from the top of the tower. Then she found a third, in a lone entrance to a catacomb near the Seine. This one was just Chat, grinning as if beckoning you to step into the darkness with luminescent green eyes. Alya located the fourth on a tall building to the west of the Eiffel Tower district. It was one of the first to receive light at dawn break. Ladybug hung from her yoyo fixed in time, smirking at the bystanders with confidence, contrasting against the background of glowing purple butterflies. It gave the impression they were chasing her, never able to quite catch up with her.

The fifth mural was located in an abandoned subway stop. Why was Alya poking around a ruined subway station home to critters and vagabonds alike, was her own business. Contrary to what her friends thought, Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't the only object of her obsessions. She took pride in knowing things no one knew, discovering buried secrets, poking into the unknown. Fortunately for a curious, knowledge-thirsty soul like hers, Paris was a city plagued with mysteries. This new mural was a great example.

It was abstract, unlike anything else Graffiti Dog had ever created. He played with different shades of black, green, and red to give the illusion of two different energy sources merging and intertwining in tendrils of smoky magic. Green paws were imprinted with glow-in-the-dark paint along with crawling lines of ladybugs. It was one of the coolest things Alya had ever seen.

"Hey Ladybloggers! It's me again. As you may all know, I recently became obsessed with someone who's probably as obsessed as I am with Ladybug and Chat Noir. For those who have been missing out on my latest blog updates, I'm talking about the new resident artist of Paris, an anonymous muralist who signs as Graffiti Dog. This is the fifth mural in the last two months but I think we can all agree it's the sickest one." She panned the camera slowly so as to take in the entire mural. "I mean guys, I swear, this camera doesn't do it justice. Don't ask me how I found it, but if you care to see it for yourself you can find it in the Granade subway station of Line 32-A, right by-."

"Hey, you! You can't be here!"

"Oh shit, the police," Alya whispered, forgetting the fact she was still filming and breaking into a sprint. "Catch you later, Ladybloggers!"

Adrien hit the spacebar of his keyboard to stop the video. He leaned on his desk pensively, resting his chin on his intertwined hands.

"What?" Plagg prodded as he gorged on a piece of Camembert. Adrien wrinkled his nose at the distasteful smell.

"What of what?"

"I know that face. You're thinking. It's not good when you think."

Adrien eyed his Kwami dryly. "I'm just concerned. I think we encouraged Nathaniel a little too much. He might get in trouble."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it too much."

"Did you see where Alya was? Those places are crawling with criminals. It's no place for a school kid, they might get hurt."

Plagg threw him a deadpan expression. "And you are what, thirty five?"

"I am Chat Noir, mind you," he said cockily, smirking with confidence. "Those two are teenagers testing their limits and it's all fun and games until Nathaniel breaks an arm or Alya gets mugged."

"I think you're just jealous."

The blond huffed. "Jealous of what?"

"That Ladybug has a soft spot for Graffiti Dog's murals."

He narrowed his eyes. "I am not jealous of Nathaniel. I am concerned for the wellbeing of two underage citizens."

"Whatever floats your boat," said Plagg before stuffing his face with another slice of Camembert.

Truth be told, Nathaniel missed Graffiti's company. Something about that dumb dog made him feel safe, and while he had admittedly become addicted to the adrenaline that accompanied painting the murals, he wouldn't mind if he had a friend to talk to while he ignored late night drunkards walking by.

Nathaniel was glad he actually found it in himself to paint the murals. Sneaking out at night, working with the shadows instead of running away from them, actually making it back home unharmed, these were all things that gave him a sense of self-sufficiency. But perhaps what was more important, he felt braver, more in control of his emotions.

The only thing that he didn't like was the fact his classmate Alya kept finding them. As soon as she posted them on her blog, people would try to find them and take pictures with them or of them. If he found yet another pretentious shot of someone posing with _The Innocents_ (that's what he called his first mural) posted on Instagram, he would rip his eyes out. These murals were supposed to merge with Paris, not be a tourist spot. He was trying to make a point and so far he hadn't achieved it: that help and bravery come to you when you are lost, when you find yourself somewhere precarious, in unexpected ways. But no, no one seemed to get that. Even Chloe Bourgeois herself had changed her Facebook profile picture to one of those generic, shallow shots of his art. It amused him, to be frank. If she knew who painted the murals she so adoringly talked about in class, she would probably puke her breakfast.

Hopefully no one would find this one, though. This mural was meant for the people who lived here, in this desolated subway station, forgotten. He had managed to save up for glow-in-the-dark paint and intended to use it wisely. He wanted it to be seen only by the locals, not morbidly curious bloggers or pretentious teenage snobs. He'd have to treat Alya to lunch if she ever dared to come down here. It took some nerve, he should know. The first time he descended, when he actually dared to violate the gate's seal and work his way through the bushy weeds into the partial darkness of the station, he almost cried. Flying cockroaches and a rat the size of a small puppy may or may not have been involved.

It was days before he dared to stay more than a few minutes in the dark, damp tunnel. Sometimes there would be a couple people sleeping at the stairs, some of them had makeshift tents made of cardboard and plastic, but they seldom ever paid him attention. They'd ask for a coin once or twice, food. They'd give a compliment or a criticism, but nothing more. There was one man, though. Nathaniel had come across him the last couple times. He was a small old man of Chinese heritage who wore a pair of stained green pants and a brown hoodie that was too big for him. He always kept his hands inside the front pouch, as if guarding something. Nathaniel usually found him asleep or eating by the mural and he would greet him with a delicate nod and a friendly smile that reached his eyes. Nathaniel would reply in a similar way.

"You are a talented young man," he commented as Nathaniel applied the glow-in-the-dark paint to the paws and ladybugs.

"Thank you," Nathaniel said quietly, trying not to sound rude but also making sure the man realized he didn't want a conversation.

He remitted to admire the mural in silence for a moment. "You have become quite famous, everybody loves your paintings."

Unwillingly, Nath groaned slightly causing for the man to chuckle. "You don't like to be noticed?"

"Not for the wrong reasons, no."

"You're making paintings of everyone's heroes, why wouldn't you want people to notice that?"

"Because they think I'm a fan of them."

"You are not?"

Nath shook his head as he switched his can for a new one. "I admire what they represent."

He sensed a silent question in the man's quietude, so he elaborated with a sigh. "What people don't realize is that Ladybug and Chat Noir are a mask. Beneath it, they are people like everybody else."

"People like you?"

Nath shrugged. "People believe in them, and that's a good thing. But I think no one realizes that the only difference between them and us is that they're in control of their fears."

"So anyone could be a hero, then," the man summarized. "So long as you control your emotions. You could be a hero."

"It's easier said than done," Nath said. "Besides, I think it must be easier for them, don't you think? I can't imagine them suffering a lot, being superheroes and everything. I'm pretty sure they must be the luckiest people ever."

The man gave him a wry smile. "You think so?"

"Yeah," Nath said wistfully. He shook the can, trying to coax more paint out of it. The man reached for the bag before he could, and rummaged through it with his back to Nathaniel. Just when he thought the man would steal something, he handed him a new can.

"So, why did you choose this place to make your mural?"

Nath chuckled. "Well, for one I have this classmate who runs a blog dedicated to everything related to Ladybug and Chat Noir. She can be a little annoying about it sometimes… She keeps finding my murals and she posts their location on the Internet and people come to take pictures. They're missing the point. I figured if I made my next one somewhere inaccessible, they'd think twice about trying to take a picture. That and… well, I just wanted people who hang around here to have something nice to look at, if I do say so myself," he said sheepishly.

"That is very kind of you."

Nath shrugged, looking away to hide his flushing face.

He cleared his throat, deciding to ask a question he hoped wouldn't sound too rude. "I hadn't seen you around here before, I've been coming here for a couple weeks."

The man smiled at him. "I came looking for a friend."

"Oh. Did you find him?" asked Nath without looking at the man. He worked in silence for a couple minutes before he realized the man might have not heard him, as he tended to mumble when he painted. "Did you-?"

He was alone, the man nowhere to be seen.

Except that wasn't quite right. There it was, at the end of the tunnel. The shadow that had been following him to every single one of his murals. He felt a shiver run through his spine and a gasp get stuck on his throat, but fought against the impulse to run away.

Tightening his grasp around his spray can, he said, "Who are you?"

The shadow did not move. A small glowing ball seemed to whisper something in his ear. Nath gulped and in his fear tripped over his backpack as he back-stepped, spewing out the cans. He recovered in time to see the shadow and the glowing green light merge in a blinding flash of light. A scream got stuck in Nath's throat as it whooshed past by him, leaving him entirely alone, save for the cockroaches and rats that made him company.

He remained on the floor, trying to recover his breath and whispering to himself whatever he saw must have been a product of his impractically vivid imagination. After some deep breaths he brought himself to his feet, trying to shake off the eerie sensation that lingered in the empty subway tunnel. He turned to the mural, noticing how it added to the frightening aura that just settled. Still trembling, he grabbed a can, signed his name, and collected the rest of his utensils. Before leaving, he emptied his backpack for the sake of inventory and noticed he was missing two cans. He rummaged through the bottom of the backpack, but instead of finding paint his fingers touched an odd wooden box.

"Huh?"

He pulled it out to reveal a hexagonal shape, engraved with red carvings and illegible symbols that shone with a purple hue because of the greenish light of the glow-in-the-dark paint. He turned it around, studying every feature. It was a bizarre thing, a sort of jewelry box, and he recalled having none of those. Rummaging through the folds of the bag to see what other things got smuggled in, he found a handwritten note.

 _You're like them._

He looked around, hoping to find the old man who suggested he was like Ladybug and Chat Noir somewhere. But again, only darkness and the faint noise of leaky pipes met his senses.

Strongly fighting his sense of self-preservation, he popped the lid open to be blinded by an intense ray of orange light.

"ARHG!"

He fell on his behind again, dropping the box and listening to a light clink-clank of some sort of metal piece bouncing against concrete. The light receded and condensed into a tiny floating being that lazily stretched and casted his big amber eyes on him. The creature lit the tunnel with his faint glow. It was a copper brown, had two sharp ears and a fluffy fox tail.

Nathaniel was at a loss.

"You're a… you. What the hell are you?"

He wasn't even sure it spoke, but there he was, rambling like an idiot at him.

The fox-dog-wolf creature looked concerned at him and cocked his head.

"Are you like a Pokemon or what? Can you understand me? Well, of course you can't understand me if you're... a fox? Foxes can't talk… but then again foxes aren't small enough to fit into a jewelry box. And foxes don't fly. They most certainly do not fly. I had a class about that. Foxes cannot fly!"

"Well, I wouldn't degrade myself to a mere fox, but then again, you should never say never." The soft-spoken, clear, and rather calm voice of the little creature pried a yelp out of Nathaniel.

"What the FUCK. YOU TALK. What. What the hell. What. The actual. Hell. Nathaniel." He crawled as further back from the thing as he could. "I'm drugged," he decided. "Or like, got a concussion. Or I got drugged from the spray AND got a concussion. That has to be it."

"Fret not, my friend," the thing said, and flew to be at his eye level. "You can trust me, I won't hurt you!"

"Like hell you won't, you're going back into that box."

He beckoned Nath for calm with his little paw-like hands and smiled. "Fair enough, but at least let me explain. Give me a chance. You're not crazy, or drugged. My name is Trixx, and I am a Kwami. I bestow magical powers."

Nathaniel simply stared at the creature with a gaping mouth.

"I just… you know, no. I can't. Nope. No. No. I knew one day I'd go crazy but I'm not ready to go into the asylum. I'm too young. What's this? The first signs of dementia, maybe. Yeah. I need to go to the doctor."

"Please, listen to me." Trixx put his paws on Nathaniel's nose, to meet his eyes. "You have been chosen among many to become a Miraculous wielder."

"You're a figment of my imagination!"

"You're the new Miraculous wielder."

His heart almost stopped. "A Mira- what. WHAT. Shit, like Ladybug and Chat Noir? That type of Miraculous?" He was hoping the fox creature would say no. "Ha ha, of course not you stupid loser. Joke's on you, you're just super crazy, later!" That's what it should say.

"Yes."

Dang it.

Nathaniel laughed. "No, it has to be a mistake. You picked the wrong guy. Actually, who put you in my bag? It was that Chinese guy, right? I'm filing a police complaint for stalking."

"I'm certain I have picked well."

At Nathaniel's utter confusion, Trixx chuckled and floated around his head. "Oh come on, you cannot say you don't recognize me."

Nathaniel looked intently, and suddenly he knew. It was completely illogical and obviously not possible, but he was certain. "Graffiti?" he moaned.

"The very same."

"What? But… but how does that even work? You… you were a dog! And that Plagg thing Chat Noir has, he's not a cat, is he? Like is that your costume or what? Why aren't you a dog right now?"

"Oh, you've met Plagg! Eh, I guess you _could_ say he's a cat…"

"What? No. I didn't meet him, I just-." He sighed. "Look. I don't think you've got the right person for this. I can't be a Miraculous wielder." It even felt weird to say it out loud. Him, a superhero? Fat chance.

"The Fox Miraculous gives you the power of disguise," Trixx said. "It is granted to one who possesses great wit, much like yourself. That is how I was able to disguise myself as Graffiti, my Guardian wielded me to study you."

Nathaniel snorted. "Wit? No. I fail like, everything at school." Which reminded him of an irritating goodie two shoes that was just smart enough for the job. "But you know what. I know this guy, kind of annoying but he's like, the smartest person in my class. Adrien Agreste, that's who you want to find. I can take you to him if you want."

Trixx laughed lightly. "My Guardian trusted you with me. We agree you are fit to become the next Fox."

"I- I can't. I'm not superhero material. Besides, Ladybug and Chat Noir, they're a team. They're like, a thing. I don't think they'd like me poking into their business, I'd be a third wheel. And they don't need anyone else in their team, you know? It's like their own deal. I'd throw off their groove."

"I'm sure after recent events, they'd be more than glad to have you in the team." Trixx's expression turned more serious. "Things are changing, Nathaniel. Hawkmoth is becoming stronger now that he has a steady source of negative energy."

"Lila?"

Trixx nodded. "And he will do anything to find more of those steady sources, anything to make Ladybug and Chat Noir defenseless. If you hadn't been there to help them that night, if you hadn't been able to think fast on your feet, Hawkmoth would probably have won."

He gulped. "And what would have happened then?"

"Ladybug is the Wielder of Creation just as Chat Noir is the Wielder of Destruction. The power of their Kwami is so great, and their energies so opposite that it is impossible to wield both at the same time. They are two sides of a coin, but must be separated to maintain balance. Hawkmoth wants to wield them both."

"For what?"

Trixx shrugged. "My Guardian did not tell me much about that subject, he awoke me just recently. But it is imperative we prevent that."

"Awoke?"

The kwami smiled. "I've been asleep for a while. My last wielder lived in the California Gold Rush."

Nath raised his brows. "Wait… like, El Zorro?"

Trixx grinned. "Exactly like El Zorro."

"That was for real?"

Trixx nodded. "He had a sense of humor, Joaquin. Much like Robin, actually."

Nathaniel furrowed his brows. "Robin. Robin Hood. You lived in Medieval England and transformed as Robin Hood."

Trixx nodded vigorously again.

Nathaniel half coughed, half laughed, remembering Disney's film Robin Hood. Guess there was a reason why they depicted him as a fox, after all. He looked down to where a fox tail-shaped necklace lay on the floor. He gingerly picked it up, as if instead of a harmless piece of jewelry he was holding a time bomb.

"What's this?"

"Your Miraculous," Trixx said. Nathaniel glanced at him wearily.

"Look, Graffiti- I mean, Trixx, I can't do it." He sighed. "I've been akumatized before." He put the fox tail necklace back in its cushioned box. "Ladybug and Chat Noir never have."

"Our past does not define us, our will to become more than it does."

Nathaniel couldn't find it in himself to argue against that. After all, wasn't he the first defender of second chances?

"Ladybug and Chat Noir don't need me," He insisted. "They have everything under control."

"There will soon be a time when that may no longer be the case."

Nathaniel looked away, still uncertain. Clever and experienced as he was, Trixx tried another approach. One that never failed if the chosen was a true Fox: negotiation.

"Okay, let's put it this way," said Trixx. "My Guardian and I are concerned things will get more complicated for Ladybug and Chat Noir, that is why we came to find you. You don't have to join them right now. In the meantime, if you allow me, I can show you what you could do if you were to become the Wielder of Wit. And when the time comes, if you feel you are up to the task, you may become my wielder."

Nath looked warily at the fox pendant that innocently shone against the glow of the mural.

"It would make painting murals easier…"

Trixx smirked when the boy turned to look at him, knowing he finally managed to pique his interest.

"All you need to do is wear the necklace."

"What did you say it does again?"

"You have the power of disguise. You can become whoever or whatever you want. You can also hypnotize people to make them believe things temporarily, but that requires practice and concentration."

Nathaniel lifted the chain gingerly, to study it against the light. "Do I get a Lucky Charm or Cataclysm?"

"No. That kind of power is only reserved for Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses. Your power works like Hawkmoth's in that you do not run out of time. However, you may only shapeshift three times. Your first disguise lasts five minutes. The second will last for three. Your last, one. Run out of transformations and you will have to resource to combat."

He gulped. "I've never even gotten in a fight before. What about the illusion thing?"

"Have you ever played the flute?" Trixx asked with a smirk.

"No."

The Kwami nodded, unsurprised. "I thought so. Just as Ladybug has her yoyo and Chat Noir his baton-."

"I have a flute. Like Volpina."

Trixx nodded, proud that Nathaniel caught up so fast.

"When you play it, you are able to conjure visions. But like I said, it requires practice. For one, you must learn to play. The more intricate the melody, the more believable the vision. For two, you must be able to harness all your focus to imagine in detail what you want people to believe, all this while playing."

He huffed. "Sounds like a lot of trouble."

"The life of a superhero isn't glamorous," Trixx said. "It's a lot more perilous than you might think."

His eyebrows knit in concentration as he brushed his fingers along the cold surface of the pendant.

"Everything alright?"

"How did Hawkmoth know to turn Lila into a replica of a Miraculous user?"

Trixx smiled, catching drift of Nath's analysis. "Nooroo's power aligns with the thoughts of his champions. In this case, victims."

"He transforms them into what they know. How did Lila-."

Trixx nodded. "I know what you are thinking. You will know in due time, if you choose to become my Wielder."

Nath eyed him warily, suddenly understanding Alya's curiosity with the exception that she went poking under the rug for no other reason than to know. Nath wanted to learn what was going on to help Ladybug and Chat Noir in any way he could. He owed them that much. Besides, the fact that someone as seemingly inconsequential as a schoolgirl had that type of knowledge was worrying. Who knows what else she knew?

Nath felt a shiver rattle his insides as he slipped the chain over his head. He tried his best to ignore Trixx's glowing smile.

"This doesn't mean anything."

"Of course not."

"It's a trial period," he insisted. "Like Photoshop."

Trixx did not understand what the boy talked about but he nodded. "Like Photoshop." Whatever that was.

He studied the pendant as it rose and fell with his unsettled breathing.

"If you want to transform, all you need to say is 'Fangs Out.'"

"Fangs Out? That's a little chee-."

His question was consumed in favor of screaming at the top of his lungs as Trixx was sucked into the necklace with sudden, bright flash. The magic overrode him, feeling as if fingernails lightly scraped him. It wasn't painful or uncomfortable, but it still felt odd. As the sensation coursed through him, it replaced his clothes with a skintight suit.

His eyes readjusted and found that he suddenly saw through a flimsy protection, goggles of sorts. It no longer was dark. He could make out where everything was. As his senses finally settled in, everything else did. He heard the footsteps of people walking on the street on top of him, the distant screeching of trains switching rails somewhere in the deeper veins of the Parisian transportation system, he smelled the foul stench of rat droppings, human filth, dust, and rot. He wanted to puke.

Unable to calm himself, and still very well on the verge of a mental breakdown, Nathaniel looked at himself with his newfound nocturnal sight. His clothes were gone as he suspected, instead he sported a suit in predominant orange that diffused to white towards his chest. White continued on along his torso and navel, diffusing back to orange at mid-thigh length. His hands were covered by gloves secured firmly with sturdy cuffs around his wrists, his feet were protected by ankle-high boots that were reinforced on the tips and the heels, both accessories were deeper shades of orange, verging on dark brown, save for the sleek metal of the reinforcements.

Nath found his middle was wrapped with a belt that shared the gradient characteristics of the rest of his suit: it merged and diffused with white and orange, so as to not disturb the continuity of the color. Attached to the belt there was a band that went from his right hip over his left shoulder and across his back. It was the sheath that guarded the flute, he discovered, as he reached with his right hand over the opposite shoulder.

He pulled it out and realized it was longer than any normal flute. The keys were comfortably within his reach but he could tell right away that playing music was not the only purpose intended for the instrument. It was made of the same shiny metal that covered the reinforcements of his boots, and somehow, it still felt weightless to his grip. He swung it a couple times, managing to indent a lone bicycle frame that lay abandoned, realizing the purpose of the flute was also for battle.

Nath caught reflection of his appearance on the murky glass of the ticket booth. He gasped at the stranger staring back at him. The top of his head was adorned with a pair of spiky fox ears, not quite as long as the ones Lila had, but more akin to those of a red fox. His face, his identity, was protected by a mask that imitated the shape of a fox's visage. Angular and pointy, following the consistent copper-and-brown gradient that predominated the rest of his suit: deeper shades of orange near the forehead, white and slightly black towards his nose. Like Chat Noir, his eyes were protected by a film but instead of acidic green, they were an electric blue, like his own eyes. For a change, he could see both of them, given that his hair mysteriously poked out to the left, as if someone had styled it to resemble a fox's tail. Finally, resting on his chest, there was also the thin necklace rising and falling with the movement of his lungs.

He caught glimpse of something else, something that immediately made him embarrassed: A fluffy fox tail that floated like a tongue of fire.

"Aw, no," he hissed. "No. That's totally impractical." He reached to grab it but as soon as his fingers brushed against it, it flickered, dissipating like smog. "What the-." He tried again. And again. And again, unwilling to believe the fact that it was fake until he realized he was actually turning around in circles chasing it like any other canine would do. An illusion. The tail was an illusion.

He saw how that could come in handy.

To say his reflection was a lot to take in was a gross understatement. Nathaniel was ridden with mixed emotions, mostly due to the fact that no matter how much he tried, sometimes he could still see the akuma in him. But this Nath, this stranger, was nothing like that. A year ago Hawkmoth took advantage of his admiration for superheroes and contorted it in such a way that gave Nath nightmares for months. But now things were different, the person staring back at him had not just the looks, but the potential to be a true superhero. An overwhelming sense of unworthiness washed over him. One reason why he wasn't fit to be a hero: he was selfish.

"I bet Mozilla would give millions to make me their poster child," he said to no one in particular.

Once he overcame the initial surprise, Nathaniel paced around the subway station allowing himself to get a feel of the suit. His boots clanked against the damp pavement, causing an echo. Suddenly he realized something important, yet another evidence why he wouldn't be of use to Ladybug and Chat Noir. Ladybug used her yoyo to swing from building to building, Chat Noir had his expandable baton. What did he have? A fake fire tail and a flute that could break bikes.

He tentatively brought the flute to his lips and played a few stray notes. He gasped, stopping suddenly, noticing that the notes traveled like smoke, like a fog around him. Through the smoke, he could see colors, shapes, figments of his imagination wanting to materialize. He played a few more, observing that the more consistent they were, the steadier and thicker the smoke was. Dissonant notes made it thinner, continuous melodies made it stronger.

"Whoa…"

He kept playing for a few minutes more and without realizing, went back to the predicament of how to catch up with Ladybug and Chat Noir if he was ever in battle with them. Volpina used flying, but he wasn't sure flying was part of Firefox 2.0.

He blew a strong note and with it, his tail ignited, sending him several feet over the ground.

"AHH!" He screamed, startled as he fell to the ground. The flute rolled off his hands, Nath stayed a couple seconds on the ground aware that a fall like that was bound to leave him with a broken bone, but truth was he hardly felt the fall. He stood up with no problem and dusted off.

"This is the epitome of weird. Trixx? Uh..." He realized he didn't know how to transform back. Swallowing a bit of panic at the thought of having to walk around in that costume for the rest of his life, he reasoned. If yelling "Fangs Out" transformed him into the fox then... "Fangs In."

He sighed with relief as Trixx spiraled out of the necklace and landed softly on his hands. The Kwami smiled at him, eager to learn Nath's opinion. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you how to transform back. But it seems you worked it out fine by yourself!"

Nathaniel sighed. "It's a trial," he said. "This is just… I still can't believe you would pick me."

"Like I said, you can do this at your own pace. If you want to do it, that is."

Nath nodded and picked up his backpack.

It was dark when him and Trixx emerged from the subway station, and as luck would have it, a pair of shadows cast upon the pavement as they flew above of him. Nath sighed heavily, feeling like his stomach was turning to lead. He couldn't imagine being part of their team. He was sure they wouldn't like it.

Although Nath agreed to wear the Miraculous and carry Trixx with him ever since he had been granted the necklace, he hadn't so much as peek at it in the hopes that it'd magically- or should he say, "miraculously"?- vanish.

He sighed and readjusted the collar of his shirt to hide the chain of the Miraculous as an innocent butterfly flew past the window. He gulped. There had been two akuma attacks ever since he found Trixx and he had yet to join a battle. Or introduce himself. Or transform again.

He bobbed his knee up and down and pulled at his hair. He hadn't felt this much negative emotions since his akumatization, if he didn't watch it, he'd be turning into the next Volpina.

Sighing again, he resigned to doodle chaotic shapes on top of his notes.

He was so scared to join, so very scared. Ladybug and Chat Noir were superheroes. He was just Nath. Underneath the mask Ladybug and Chat Noir were humans, too. But there's a difference between having flaws like everybody else and being made of the stuff of superheroes.

Trixx said he was chosen, that weird Chinese man presumably implied he was like Ladybug and Chat Noir. Yet, he found it hard to believe it. There were so many things wrong with him. He wasn't good at school, he always forgot to do the chores his mom tasked him with, he was scared of stray dogs and akumas. He couldn't be a hero if he was scared of akumas! He was forgetful, undependable, cowardly.

He kept doodling on the page, scratching the point of his pencil hard against the page. Circles, lines, arrows, squares. Messy, inconsistent, shaky. He doodled with his mind elsewhere, suddenly realizing moths plagued the page of his notebook. He had covered the entire edge of the page with them.

He groaned and ripped it out, not caring he had a full class worth of notes in there.

What was he supposed to do if another akuma came, anyway? Just show up? They'd think he's another fox akuma.

He could already imagine the exchange:

"I know it might be hard to believe but I'm the real Fox! Crazy, right?"

Then, Chat Noir would proceed to knock the lights out of him.

Fun times. He gulped.

The bell rang, startling him.

On the way out to his locker, he caught glimpse of Marinette and her friends discussing something. As per usual when Agreste was involved, she had the widest grin and the deepest blush on her face. Apparently the four of them would be having lunch together.

He pretended he didn't hear them, but they were standing too close to his locker for Marinette not to notice his presence.

"I'll catch up with you guys," Marinette said as the other three headed to the front gate.

Nath's heart tumbled over, realizing Marinette was walking towards him. With sweaty hands, he tried to make it look like he was very busy reorganizing his locker.

"Hey Nath!"

"Ah!" He yelped, clumsily dropping three books. "Sorry."

"Sorry! No, let me help you."

Marinette and Nath bent down to pick up the books at the same time. Without realizing it, the pendant of his Miraculous slipped out of his shirt for Marinette to see. She widened her eyes.

"That's a, uh… interesting necklace."

Nath yelped again, violently shoving it back into his shirt. "It's nothing. Nothing. My uh… grandma gave it to me. F-for my birthday, you know. Heh."

Marinette gave him a smile but he knew he hadn't fooled her. He could see it in her eyes. She might not know it was a Miraculous, but she had definitely seen it before on Lila. "Anyway, I uh… Alya and I were wondering if you wanted to join us for lunch. Nino and Adrien are coming too, to the bakery."

He couldn't help but smirk. He even felt like teasing her about the light pink shade that appeared on her cheeks as soon as she mentioned Adrien, but something else caught his eye. Lila. At the back of the hall, staring their way with a mix of envy and sadness. Her expression only hardened when Agreste passed her.

Ever since she had been akumatized, no one really wanted to hang out with her. Especially knowing what she, as an akuma, was willing to do to her supposed "crush." Chloe, mean as she was, had even gone as far as making up rumors about her mental health, since by now everyone in the class knew she had been akumatized not once, but three times.

Suddenly, he felt great empathy for her. Maybe the only reason why she had been so vulnerable to akumas was because she didn't have a friend. Because life at her new school had turned out to be a positive hell and there was nothing good about it. Probably there were very few good things at her home, too, if her happiness depended on freaking Adrien Agreste noticing her.

Half cursing himself for declining Marinette's invitation, he sighed and said, "Thanks Mari, but uh… I think I'll stay. I brought my lunch anyway."

She nodded contently and waved. "Okay! See you later, then."

Nath wasn't sure what he was thinking when he sat next to Lila on the benches of the patio, pulling out his lunch. He didn't even acknowledge her, he simply sat, popped the lid off his tupperware and started picking at his pork chops, not forgetting to save some for Trixx. Turned out the little creature had a real fang for meats.

Lila turned to him with a slightly judgmental expression but Nath tried to ignore her and happily munched his lunch.

"What the heck are you doing here, tomato head?"

He swallowed before answering. "What does it look like? Having lunch."

Lila glared at him. "Aren't you afraid I'll turn into an akuma and kick your ass, like everybody else?"

For the first time since he got Trixx, he allowed himself a little cockiness about owning the real Miraculous himself. "No offense, Firefox, but I'd like to see you try. I've been akumatized myself so I'll have you know I'm not a newbie."

Lila looked at him in disbelief. "I know what you must be thinking. I don't need your pity. I don't need any friends."

Nath gave her a nonchalant shrug. "Who said anything about friends? I'm just eating lunch. Frankly, you're too much of a snob for my taste, too. Let's just share the bench in peace."

Lila huffed and crossed her arms but she didn't move and instead, like Nath, resigned to eat her lunch in silence: a thermos with peach Italian soda and a serving of spaghetti and salad.

About ten minutes before the bell rang, Marinette's company appeared back in the patio. It didn't escape Nath the way Lila looked at Adrien and Marinette, nor the fact that the pair was well aware of her glare. Adrien himself had to turn his back to her in order to feel more comfortable. As for Mari, she felt bad for Lila, but it wasn't safe to be so close to someone who knew so much already about the Miraculouses and was not a wielder.

"Careful there, you stare any harder and you'll throw daggers at him," Nath said, earning himself a death glare, too.

"I thought you hated Adrien Agreste."

"And I thought you loved him."

She crossed her arms looking away, and scoffed. "All he cares about is stupid Ladybug."

Nathaniel curled up an eyebrow in disbelief. "I'm sorry, what?"

"That's how I got to talk to him. He's in love with her."

Nath breathed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That idiot."

Lila chuckled, knowing exactly what he meant. "She'll figure it out, eventually. If she's smart."

"Ladybug?"

"Marinette."

The bell rang. "Adrien will never notice her. I should know."

Nath discovered a newfound frustration with Agreste after that short exchange with Lila. How could anyone be so… so stupid, idiotic, downright gullible?! If Adrien Agreste thought he stood a chance with Ladybug, boy, he was dumber than he thought. Not only it was impossible, but she was only a mask, an illusion. Underneath, there was some anonymous girl with her own life, her own friends, and quite possibly, her own boyfriend. And yet, Marinette was there day after day, giving him all the attention- the only attention Nath would care for- and he was utterly throwing it down the drain. Stupid Agreste.

Nath headed down to the bathroom before entering the classroom to feed Trixx, who happily zipped out of the inside of his jacket to devour his part of lunch.

"Anything you'd care to share?" Trixx said, of course, referring to his lunch with Lila.

"What do you mean?"

Trixx smirked deviously but Nath rolled his eyes at him. "First of all, no. Second of all, NO. I know what you're thinking. And it's not like that."

"So you weren't being nice to Lila even though she has given you no reason to do that?"

"She needs a friend. It's not good to be alone when you're feeling down, she might get akumatized again. Besides… it's for investigation purposes."

"Investigation purposes?" Trixx smiled cheekily at him. "My, oh my."

Nathaniel sighed with exasperation. "Well, don't you think it's easier to figure out why Lila is being akumatized so much and help her instead of fighting her?"

"Clever."

"You done with that?" Nath nodded at the tupperware before sealing it and opening his jacket for Trixx to fly in.

"I mean, she's kinda cute."

"Stop it, Trixx. I don't like Lila."

A single, solitary figure perched atop the roof of College Francois Dupont. Tail flickering with the wind, he played a small, five note tune, fluttery and hypnotic, like a whisper.

After a long afternoon of debating, Nath decided it was time for the first patrol of the "trial." Nervous like when he was scared to pass by the mural where Graffiti and the shadow had first appeared, he reasoned he'd have to do this eventually if he really was to become a Wielder. He could choose against it, as Trixx reminded him, but the part of him that advised him to give away the Miraculous was the same part that wanted him to ask his brother for company when he went to buy milk: fear. And that simply wouldn't do.

Nath took pride in keeping his cool, even if that meant a rough exchange with a certain spotted lady and her cat. So far, luck had played in his advantage, though. He had stayed until late and hid in a cupboard before the school closed for good. Once with the coast clear, all he had to do was find the maintenance stairwell to the roof. After he transformed for the second time, he decided to practice his patrolling skills, which mainly involved being able to float over the ground for at least five seconds without crashing to the ground. It was harder than he thought. He had to keep playing the flute, thinking about flying, and birds, and comets. He didn't dare to skip to another building yet.

The simple tune Trixx taught him was only good for small tasks like flying and small illusions, so after he got tired of stuffing his face with loose concrete pebbles, he decided to work on his illusions. He imagined dancing paintbrushes, ducks, a little black kitten chasing around a ladybug… It wasn't hard, it was like sketching, actually.

He walked around the edge of the roof, careful not to be spotted by the passers-by, when he noticed something. Marinette. He smirked, intensely tempted to use his transformation to go say hi but chances were she would be more frightened than impressed. She looked both ways before completely emerging from the door of a small shop that had a sign written in Chinese, and waved goodbye at whoever was still in the establishment.

She idly texted on her phone as she passed by the park, which was unusually unlit. Nath remembered they had mentioned it in the morning news. Town Hall ordered for maintenance brigades in certain parks, they'd be changing the lighting.

Marinette didn't care how creepy the block looked without light, though, and walked through it without the slightest preoccupation. Nath however, was able to see there was someone waiting around the corner. A man with a black beanie and a thick jacket. His heart skipped a beat, easily reading into the man's intentions.

"Give me your phone!" He demanded, pointing a knife at her.

Marinette, taken completely by surprise, gasped and dropped the device to the floor. She gulped, knowing it was too late to run or transform. She calmed herself and instinctively clutched her purse. Kicking the phone as far away from her as she could, she stepped back while the thug fetched it. That's when she noticed there was another man waiting on the exit she was planning to use. She was cornered.

"The purse," the man demanded.

Marinette's voice got stuck on her throat.

"The goddamned purse, kid!"

"Come on, Marinette, give it to them, it's just a purse…" Nath muttered, suddenly feeling helpless.

But Marinette did not budge.

"Come and get it," she spat.

It wasn't until the second guy, the one on the exit, grabbed her that she started screaming and fighting them. To no avail of course, she was strong for a girl her age, deft in combat too, but the suit gave her the extra stamina she needed to break free from the man's grasp.

When a white van veered around the corner, Nath knew there was no choice. This was his first battle, like it or not.

The school was four stories high, but he was too busy thinking about all the horrible things that could happen to Marinette instead of the prospect of broken bones. He jumped to the abyss and played as clearly as he could, crash landing successfully in the park and charging at the man who held Mari first.

"Hey, leave her alone!" He growled and smacked the back of the man as hard as he could. He heard a loud crack, probably a broken rib, but he did not stop. The man yelped and suddenly loosened his grip on Marinette, and she was able to hit the criminal with her head and jab him hard in the stomach.

"Run," Nathaniel ordered, putting himself between Mari and the thieves. "Do it!"

He evaded the man's knife attack while the other one lay doubled on the floor, writhing in pain.

Nath played the flute, suddenly remembering he could use his disguise.

 _Ladybug, think of Ladybug_.

The smoke of his tunes surrounded him, suddenly changing his appearance feeling as a warm fire enveloped him.

Marinette had not yet ran from the scene to transform herself, when she saw the fox stranger become her in front of her very eyes. This akuma made Volpina look like an amateur.

Petrified by shock, she couldn't do anything else but stare.

"What the hell!" the thug exclaimed as Nathaniel's Ladybug approached him.

"Leave before I knock your lights out!"

"Sorry to be late to the purrty, my lady" Chat Noir cockily said as he smacked the thug off his feet with his baton. "You should know better than walk into Ladybug territory," Chat said, lifting the guy with ease. It seemed like Chat knew the burglar. They were local crime fare, maybe. "Weren't we clear with that last time, Ladybug and I?"

"So-sorry!" the thug said.

"Say that to the cops," Chat Noir growled. "What were you trying to do this time, huh? Trying to steal some poor-." He gasped. Nathaniel watched as color left Chat's face. "Princess?"

In a moment of distraction, the thief punched Chat and managed to bring his partner to his feet, both sprinting towards the van and disappearing into the night. Chat cursed under his breath as he felt the blood starting to drip from his nose.

Nath, who still looked like Ladybug, gasped.

"A little help would be appreciated, my lady." And help did come, from Marinette.

She rushed to Chat and used the hem of her shirt to clean the blood from his nose. "Princess… What were you doing all alone out here?"

"I… I was walking home. Chat, your nose." Marinette kept glancing at Nath Ladybug with utter horror. Chat Noir seemed to catch on, although if she was entirely honest, he seemed a bit disappointed for some reason.

"My lady, you know Marinette, don't you?" He said, suddenly remembering Ladybug was witness to Marinette's attentions for him. He was happy she helped, but he didn't want to make Ladybug jealous.

"That… that's not your lady, Chat," she whispered.

Chat looked at Marinette with confusion, while Nath felt magic tingling across his entire body. Like a bucket of cold water, he shifted back to being the fox.

Chat Noir jumped to his feet and put himself between Nath and Marinette. "Marinette, go home," he said seriously. "Now."

Nath stepped back with his hands raised in defeat. "I- I'm not going to hurt you."

"Who are you?" Chat demanded, baton at bay. "You're an akuma, like Volpina!"

"No! No, I'm not. I'm… I'm a Miraculous holder, just like you!"

"Didn't you know, mongrel? Liars are losers." Chat charged at him and Nath barely evaded him. He produced his flute from the sheath and started playing in order to fly.

"It's true!" He said in between breaths. "I'm the Fox!"

"Leave!"

"I'm here to help you!"

"I said leave!"

Nath elevated into the sky and flew away as fast as he could, not caring how many times he crash landed, or how often he had to run.

"Fangs In!" he exclaimed once in the privacy of his room. Exhausted, Trixx spiraled out of the necklace and landed on Nath's bed.

"I told you this was a mistake!" he said, handing Trixx a slice of ham. "Did you see? Chat Noir almost killed me! This is a disaster. Wait until he tells Ladybug. Oh no… this is going to be bad."

"You're jumping to conclusions much too soon, Nathaniel. You did a great job today. Who knows what would have happened to that classmate of yours if you hadn't stepped in? You were brave."

"Yeah but now Chat Noir is going to hunt me down and give Ladybug my head as a marriage proposal gift."

Trixx laughed. "He was just disoriented. Give him a little time. I'm sure the case will be the same with Ladybug, you'll see. You'll become good friends."

Nath bit his lip and twisted his fingers as he looked out the window. "Wish I could be that sure."

Trixx flew to Nath's head and ruffled his hair with his tiny paws. "Be certain of it."

"Eat up, Plagg," Adrien said as he leaned against one of the beams of his window. The lights of his room were off. For Natalie, the Gorilla, and his dad, he was already passed out. With his arms crossed and a small frown, his eyes scanned the Parisian horizon intently. "We're going back out."

He heard Plagg complain. "Again? Why?"

"Because. I need to make sure Marinette is safe. Besides, I need to talk to Ladybug."

Without Adrien noticing, Plagg actually stopped eating and looked up to the silhouette of his Wielder. Plagg waited until Adrien commented further, but he didn't. No, he doesn't know yet, he decided, and went back to eating his cheese.

"Things are getting worse."

"How do you know he wasn't the real Fox? He did help Marinette." Plagg reasoned, knowing that if he managed to convince Adrien, he wouldn't have to take him to see the Guardian yet. He wanted to postpone that as much as he could, for Adrien's own sake.

"Other akumas have done things like that too. I mean, the Bubbler wanted to throw me a party. The Evillustrator wanted a date with Marinette. What's not to say this akuma wasn't some other of Marinette's admirers?" He admitted, rather sourly.

You have no idea, kid, Plagg thought.

"Claws Out."

A flash of green, and the night suddenly felt comfier. He slithered out of his usual window, the one on the bathroom with the camera blind spot, and vaulted towards Marinette's house.

He had never done this before, visiting her as Chat Noir. Then again, the fact it was specifically Marinette the one that had been attacked put his nerves on edge. Granted, sometimes even Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't fast enough to stop a crime, but somehow the meaning of that limitation hadn't quite clicked until it was one of his friends that was in danger. Just thinking what could have happened to her if he hadn't arrived on time made him break a cold sweat.

By the time he was hiding behind the chimney, Adrien realized he didn't really have something to say to her other than "You scared the crap out of me, Marinette! Try to be more careful!" This is what Ladybug meant when she said he didn't think things through. What was he supposed to do now?

After pondering for a moment, he decided he'd only check on her window, see she wasn't too overwhelmed with the shock of being mugged, and then leave. He really didn't want to deal with Lady if she found out he was visiting civilian girls at the wee hours of the night. To his surprise though, he found the girl on her balcony. Already changed into her pajamas and with a blanket draped around her shoulders, she fixed her eyes onto the night with a serious expression. Well, she didn't look shaken. That would have been enough. He should have left. It was against his better judgement, really, when he landed with a loud thud behind Marinette.

She gasped, quickly turning around and pulling the blanket closer to herself.

"Chat Noir!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" Realizing he sounded more like Adrien than himself, he cleared his throat and casually leaned against a wooden table. "I mean… Good evening, Princess." He winked at her, suddenly realizing the table wobbled, and losing his balance. "Heh."

Marinette gave him a suspicious look. "What are you doing here? It's late."

"Just doing my nightly patrol, is all. I wanted to check you were okay."

Marinette smirked. "You do that with every other civilian you rescue? How thoughtful."

"Nope, just with you, Princess."

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "I'm okay Chat. You don't have to worry."

"I'm sorry I got there so late."

"Don't worry. Sometimes it happens. And I'm okay, so no harm done. That akuma… he, uh, he bought you some time."

"Right," he said looking away. "Well, speaking of which, I have to get going. Make sure he doesn't bother any more damsels in distress, you know?"

Marinette snorted.

"Always a pleasure, princess." He made a reverent bow and kissed Marinette's hand. Ready to jump to the next building, Marinette stopped him.

"Chat," she said with a small voice.

He turned to her, finding confliction in her face. "St-stay safe. That akuma might be dangerous."

He smiled. "Thank you, Princess."

With that, Chat jumped to the next closest building, and the next, and the next, until his cat-like figure was nothing but a dot in the distance, outlined by the lights of the city and the moon itself.

Tikki emerged from the blanket. "That was close."

"Tell me about it." Marinette stayed in silence a bit more, wondering what the reason Chat Noir came to visit her was. He had saved her before and he had never came to check on her. Why was it different today? Maybe it was because of the fox. After all, until now he had been Paris' only "knight in shining armor," as he called himself.

"Is it really an akuma, Tikki? I'm worried Chat will run into trouble. We should go help him."

"He was telling the truth, Marinette. He is the real Fox."


	4. Mentors

The thing Marinette hated the most was having to keep secrets from Chat Noir. The thing was she couldn't tell him that she had started visiting the Guardian almost every other week since Volpina appeared. It's not that she didn't want to, but the Guardian was very explicit: Chat Noir was not to be told, he would come to him in his own time. Marinette was not to mention anything, even if the guilt gnawed her in the gut. She resolved to keep the visits to the bare minimum in result. She didn't want to hide more than the absolutely necessary from Chat, and this was after all, a pressing matter. There was a new fox in Paris. The real one this time, it so seemed.

Did Master Fu even know about him? Did he steal the Miraculous from Master Fu? Was he worthy? Marinette was so mortified that she almost didn't notice that the person she collided with as she took a turn to enter Master Fu's massage parlor was none other than Adrien Agreste.

"Adri-"

"Marinette."

"What are you doing here?" Both asked in synchrony.

Adrien ran his hand along the band of his messenger bag. "I, uh… was on my way home?"

"M-me too."

With that said, neither moved.

"Well… It was nice seeing you!" Adrien said politely. He waved at her and walked briskly away, hiding behind the next available corner while Marinette walked in the opposite direction, unknowingly doing the same. Adrien waited five minutes before he poked his head to see if the coast was clear.

"Are you sure this is the address?" He whispered to Plagg, who was hiding inside his shirt.

"Yes. Go, he's waiting for you."

"Who is? Do you realize how awfully suspicious this is?"He hissed at the feline god. A small part of Adrien wondered if this whole superhero deal had just been an elaborate scheme to abduct a pair of teenagers.

"You'll be fine. He'll explain everything. Even about the fox."

Adrien looked out to the street again. "Well, Marinette is gone."

"Go in, he should be waiting for you," Plagg instructed.

Adrien grimaced, still thinking it was rude to just barge in. He knocked.

Silence.

A minute passed and no one came to open the door.

"Just go in!"

Adrien sighed. "What if they're not home?"

"You're always whining about me not telling you things about the ring and now you're going to chicken out?"

"I'm not chickening out," Adrien complained, proving himself right by pushing the door open and revealing a narrow, wooden-floored hallway.

The faint smell of jasmine incense lingered in the air, floating along a soft fiddle melody. There were two paper doors on each side of the hall and a wooden one at the back. Three scrolls hanged on each side in the spaces between them, as well as one on the wooden door. The first two depicted a peacock and a butterfly, the next two a bee and a fox, the third pair had a ladybug and a black cat, and the one on the door at the back was the painting of a tortoise. To the untrained eye, these scrolls looked like decoration with Chinese motifs to get into the mood of the whole parlor but Adrien suspected there was more to them. They did say the best place to hide something is out in the open, after all. These were Chinese scrolls describing the essence of each animal, the wisdom each provided: iInsight for the peacock, change for the butterfly, wit for the fox, direction for the bee, and protection for the turtle. He didn't really need to stall on the ladybug and the cat, he knew: creation and destruction. The scrolls referred to the wisdom of these animals as "spirits." _Kwami,_ he thought.

"Don't get distracted," Plagg said.

Adrien took in a deep breath and marched to the door with the tortoise painting. He raised his hand to knock again, only to find it was slightly open. He gulped, pulled it, and revealed a small Chinese man who looked around eighty. He wore khaki Bermuda shorts and a white-and-red Hawaiian shirt, and sat cross-legged on a mat with a meditation pose Adrien recognized from a magazine about Tibet that used to lie around the house when he was about five. There was a low-rise table next to him with two small porcelain cups adorned with hand-painted cherry blossoms, and a tea pot.

The man's eyes were closed and his lips were spread in a peaceful smile. If it hadn't been for the twitch of his face when the door creaked as Adrien entered, he would have assumed he was asleep. Next to him was a tiny green creature meditating. A Kwami, Adrien assumed.

"Hello, Chat Noir," the man said, slowly opening his eyes.

Adrien gasped.

The man smiled kindly at him and turned towards the table. "You should come sit."

Adrien hurried over to the opposite side of the table and plopped down, scared to make the Guardian wait. He had theories about how the ring fell into his possession. Magic, destiny, a miracle. Sometimes he even suspected it had been his father, Natalie, or the gorilla. In the end, after careful consideration it always seemed implausible that a person had granted it to him. He liked to believe it had been the sheer power of Plagg's magic, and Plagg being Plagg, never really refuted it. Not until he confessed there was a guardian of the Miraculous stones. Being in the presence of the man who changed his life intimidated Adrien.

"How do you- Plagg told me it was time I should meet you. He said you could answer some of my questions and help me find something I lost."

That was the real reason he dared to meet the guardian. It had been over a month since Adrien lost his father's book. By some insanely unusual good luck, his father hadn't noticed it was missing yet. But it was only a matter of time, and Adrien was scared of what his father would do if he found out it had been his fault. Going back to being homeschooled was one of the probable scenarios. That or the Ermitage, that boarding school just outside of Paris he used to menace Adrien with the few times he misbehaved, before he was allowed to go to public school.

"It's a book. He told me I should talk to you about it. I lost it and it had a bunch of information about the Miraculous stones. I wasn't really able to read it though, it's in a code. It's my dad's and I will be in a lot of trouble if he finds out I lost it. Do you know where it is? Oh, and have you met Ladybug yet? I think she should come over sometime since you're the guardian. I don't know who she is behind the mask though, so that might be a problem. Oh, also, I don't know if you're aware, but I think there's a loose akuma. He's pretending to be the fox wielder. I've been trying to contact Ladybug so we can cleanse him, but I haven't seen her this week so I thought-."

"Would you like some tea?" the man interrupted Adrien's rambling.

"I could head out alone and- what?"

"Tea." He pointed at the cups. "Tea first, questions later. It helps calm the mind."

"Uh… sure."

The man poured him a cup. "You should let Plagg out. I have some cheese for him."

He didn't have to say it twice. Plagg zipped right out of Adrien's shirt without even greeting the Guardian. "Cheese! Yes, I'm famished!"

The man laughed as he offered his hand so Plagg could sit. "Hello Plagg."

The kwami purred happily. "Hello master."

The green kwami who had been so far unacknowledged, flew up to meet Plagg. He bowed to Adrien first, smiling just as kindly as the old man. "Chat Noir."

Adrien, not knowing what else to do, bowed too.

"Wayzz would you help Plagg get to the kitchen, please? Chat Noir and I need to have a conversation."

"Of course, master. A pleasure to meet you," he said to Adrien, then he sighed. "Plagg."

"Turtle thing."

"Would you please stop calling me that? You'd think you'd have a little more maturity after all these millennia!" Wayzz pleaded as they flew out of the room through a door at the back. Adrien heard Plagg's banter for a moment longer, wishing the kwami had a more developed sense of decency, before silence gradually settled in the room.

Adrien took a sip of his tea just for something to do. It had a warm, herbal flavor.

"My name is Fu," the man explained.

 _Master Fu,_ Adrien thought, since Plagg and Wayzz called him master.

"I am the Guardian of the Miraculous stones, and the wielder of the stone of Protection. I gave you your Miraculous, Adrien."

The boy felt color leave his face. "How do you know my name?"

Master Fu chuckled. "I don't think there is a single person in Paris who doesn't know who you are."

Adrien blushed, looking down at his tea and holding the cup with both hands. "How… why did you…" He looked up as a memory suddenly flashed in his mind. "Wait, I remember you. You were that man on the sidewalk, that day in school. You… you didn't even know me, and you gave me the ring?" he exclaimed. "Why? A-and how did you manage to put it in my house without anyone noticing? We have cameras!"

"You did not know me and you showed me kindness," the man simply said. "That is what heroes do. They help, they sacrifice, all without expecting anything in return. I've lived long enough to know this is true."

"Yeah but… anyone could have done that."

Adrien had always been quite certain of his abilities as a superhero. Unlike his partner, Adrien thought of his duties as more of a game, a break from the miserable life he otherwise led. Being Chat Noir gave him freedom, it gave him friends. It changed his life. Often, he wondered what he did to deserve such good luck. Despite his problems with his father, the reality was that he was actually luckier than most kids in Paris. In France, even. He was born into one of the wealthiest families of the country. He had everything he could wish for. He had a good education. He didn't know the concept of needing something and not being able to afford it. Adrien was very aware of all these things, he reminded himself each day of them so that he could put his own grief into context. After all, experience had shown him that while he was born with privilege, you couldn't have everything in life. Something's has to give in order to make things fair for everyone. And while yes, he felt miserable for losing his mom and being ignored by his father, he knew from all the bad things that could happen to him, this was not the worst.

When Plagg came into his life, a part of him thought it was destiny. Again, he believed in the miracle of it all. It was simpler than considering the fact that someone might have looked at him and thought him worthy of the responsibility. That scared him. As Adrien Agreste he was no stranger to responsibility and expectation. Day in and day out, there was always someone expecting something out of him: A brighter smile, a better pose, a polite answer, perfect grades. None of that was expected of Chat. Ladybug did rely on him, but she didn't expect anything from him. She trusted him, which is different. The fact that someone gave him the Cat's Ring implied they expected something out of him being Chat Noir, and that made him restless. Attributing his luck to sheer unexplainable magic was easier, it helped him explain himself: Adrien wore masks, Chat Noir didn't.

"Why did you choose me?"

Master Fu fixed his eyes on Adrien as he sipped his tea. "I think I already answered."

"Yeah, but… You really just picked me because I helped you up? That's it, that's the reason why I'm Chat Noir?"

"Would you have done it for anyone else?"

Adrien pondered on the question and the answer was actually very prompt in his mind. Master Fu saw it in his face.

 _Yes, I would._

"What is past is past. You are Chat Noir now, and whether you believe it or not you have proven, at least to me, that you are worthy of Plagg's ring." Master Fu put his cup down and headed to an old cabinet, where he produced the object Adrien had been looking for.

"That's my book! How did you find it?"

Master Fu set the book on the table as he sat again. "Someone brought it to me."

"Lila?"

"Ladybug."

Adrien's eyes widened and felt his heart stumble. "Ladybug?"

"After the incident with your classmate, her Kwami was quick enough to spot it in your possession and advised her to bring it to me. You see, I don't know where your father got this book from, but this volume belongs to me. I lost it a couple years ago."

Noticing Adrien's mildly insulted expression, he laughed and added, "Well, you can't blame her for stealing it from Adrien Agreste. She doesn't know."

"Guess not... I still need to take it home, though. If my father finds out it's missing, I'm not sure what he might do. Plagg opened the safe for me."

Fu nodded and instead of answering, he went to take another volume from the cabinet that looked exactly like Adrien's book. "Replace it with this. It one of the other volumes, it should do the trick. But make sure he keeps it in the safe, I can't afford to lose anymore valuables."

Adrien nodded. "Master Fu?"

"Yes?"

"Why would my dad have a book about the Miraculous?"

Master Fu's expression remained neutral. He shrugged. "With a bit of luck, we will find out soon. Hopefully your new teammate will help us."

It was an answer that did not satisfy Adrien. He had this unshakable feeling that like Plagg, Master Fu was keeping things from him. But his attention drifted to a far more important matter. "Teammate? You mean the fox guy?"

Master Fu nodded. "Hawkmoth is gaining strength. You two will need all the help you can get."

"But…"

Fu raised a quizzical eyebrow at the young man. Adrien spent enough time with adults to know he was tethering on the thin line between asking questions and challenging authority, so he stopped.

"I understand this might be new for you," he said. "But if you can devise a way to fight three akumas back to back, without you or Ladybug detransforming, I'm all ears."

Have ideas? Oh, he did. He so did. Anything to keep the duo a duo. He didn't want a teammate, they didn't need a teammate. It's Ladybug and Chat Noir, period. Just him and his lady, no third wheels, no foxes. They could train more, try to use their power as little as possible, carry extra packs of Camembert and cookies. Anything was better than having another wielder! Besides, last time he trusted a fox, she tricked him. He wouldn't stumble over the same rock twice.

Adrien's face was too easy to read. "Adrien, open the book," he instructed. So Adrien did. "What do you see?"

He skimmed through the pages, finding pictures of each superhero and Kwami. "The Miraculous?"

"Which are a part of a whole. Your Miraculous and Ladybug's are the most powerful of them all, but that does not mean you are not vulnerable in your own right. Where you falter, the others do not. You are part of a team."

Adrien looked down. He still didn't like it, but for now he would not protest. Master Fu was right.

"I hope you two introduce yourselves. Try to remember how it felt to be new at this. Be as patient as you were with Ladybug."

Adrien furrowed his brows in concentration. "Have you been spying on us?"

His question pried a hearty laugh from the Guardian and reached over the table to tousle the boy's hair. A gesture that both took Adrien aback and made him feel inexplicably warm in his chest. It wasn't often he made an adult laugh. Actually, Adrien was sure he had never actually made an adult laugh before. It felt nice not to be scolded for once.

"I am the Guardian of the Miraculous," he reminded him. "And as long as you two- three- are still young, by extension that makes me your guardian of sorts, too."

Adrien smiled slightly. A _guardian_. For him. The thought was almost enough to let go of the fox situation.

"Now go," Master Fu said, taking the cup from him and putting away Adrien's original book.

"But-"

Master Fu shooed him with a hand. "I have a customer coming in today."

"But you didn't answer my questions!"

"I answered as much as you asked. If you have new questions you must come back next week." He wiggled his index finger at him, the way a teacher instructs a pupil.

"Okay, then I'll be back next Thursday."

"No. Not Thursdays," he said as he started clearing out the table and retrieving some herbs from a shelf.

Adrien frowned at him.

"I have customers on Thursday."

"Okay, then Monda-."

"I visit a friend on Mondays," he interrupted, with his attention still focused on his plants.

Adrien took a deep breath. "So Tuesdays."

"I meditate on Tuesdays."

"You were meditating today, and it's Thursday," Adrien countered.

"Come on Saturdays. Yes. Saturdays are good days for tea with Chat Noir," Master Fu said, as he mixed the herbs on a clay bowl, mostly talking to himself . "Now go, my customer will be here any time."

Adrien nodded with a small smile. He usually had extended study hours of Chinese and piano on Saturdays, but he was willing to lie about those. Having someone to visit was far more exciting than sitting alone all morning. He couldn't wait for Saturday to come.

He got up and slung his satchel over his shoulder, already with the other book safely stored inside. "Plagg?" he called. "Time to go home!"

The pair of Kwamis flew back into the room and Adrien pulled his shirt so Plagg could hide. "I'll see you on Saturday, Master. "

Master Fu bowed slightly at him. "Until then, Chat Noir."

"Oh, you can just call me Adrien, sir."

Adrien's polite farewell still lingered in the room when Master Fu's smile diluted into a somewhat pained expression. Wayzz flew to his shoulder and knowingly nuzzled him, trying to comfort him.

"He's too much like her, Wayzz."

"I know, master."

It was well past six when Adrien left Master Fu's parlor. Marinette had been waiting for him to come out, transformed as Ladybug on the roof of the building in front of the shop. She opted to give him the benefit of doubt that way. Her head became a whirlwind when she realized what Adrien's visit could mean. What was he doing there? It was awfully suspicious that he actually knew and visited Master Fu, even more so considering that he had that book the master had been looking for. Her stomach sunk remembering what Fu explained about that book when they first met. He suspected Hawkmoth had it in his possession before Adrien, that is how he learned to make akumas. He did not say anything more, but to Marinette the probability that Hawkmoth was somehow related to Adrien was clear as water. The idea tied her stomach into a painful knot. Would that mean Adrien had something to do with the biggest villain of France? Would that mean Marinette would have to fight him too?

She shook her head. No. He wasn't, he couldn't be.

The idea of fighting Adrien caused her such revolt in her stomach that she shut it down immediately, never to consider it again. She had been waiting for him the whole afternoon though, and that left plenty of time to imagine even scarier implications.

Adrien could be a wielder for all that she knew. It was awfully convenient that he suddenly showed up at Master Fu's at the same time that the fox started appearing. She had been visiting Fu for a month now and to the extent of her knowledge, Chat Noir hadn't found his way to him yet. So Adrien couldn't be him.

The worst implication of them all, however, was the idea that both of her suspicions were right: What if Adrien was both a wielder, the fox wielder to be precise, and somehow related to Hawkmoth?

She fixed her eyes on the blonde as he walked away.

"What _were_ you doing there, Adrien?"

As usual, no one was home when Adrien arrived to the mansion. His father's upcoming summer line had just entered press season, so he and Natalie were hardly around. This meant that without either of them breathing on his neck the Gorilla loosened his leash: Adrien was allowed to commute by himself to and from his activities, curfew hours were pushed back slightly, and more leeway on his diet were all allowed so long as he always informed the Gorilla- George, actually, was his name.

He texted him: " _Just got home._ "

He marched to his father's studio and knocked, just in case the man was there. He was met with silence. Reassured, he opened the door. The studio was as cold and unwelcoming as any part of the house, with the exception it looked slightly more lived in. There was an unfinished espresso and weak cigarette exhaust steaming from the sleek silver ashtray on his father's desk. Various lookbooks, magazines, and loose designs cluttered its glass surface. He noticed the computer wasn't off, it was simply idle from disuse. Must have left in a rush.

Adrien felt a pang of pain as he glimpsed his mother's portrait, suddenly remembering why he was in the room at all. The sensation of Plagg nuzzling his cheek broke his distraction and he was forced to focus on the task at hand. Diverting his eyes from the painting, he brushed along the frame to find the hidden button that unlocked the portrait's hinge, and revealed the safe.

Without commenting, Plagg flew past the metal and moments later opened it. Adrien placed the book on the shelf, careful to put it exactly the way he found it. Unlike the first time, he actually gave himself time to scan the other contents of the safe, trying to tie loose strings. He wasn't stupid, something told him Master Fu purposefully chose not to tell him why his father had this book.

A ticket to Tibet. A guide and a map of the same destination. The picture of his mother on her thirty-eighth birthday. A blue brooch. Some old scrolls. A leather bound notebook.

He tentatively brushed the surface of the notebook, toying with the idea of opening it, but not daring to. He closed the safe's door, as well as the portrait.

He fixed his attention on the face of his mother for a moment then closed his eyes, sighed, and tried to remember what it was like when she was around. She left only three years ago. If he focused hard enough, sometimes he could swear he still heard her laugh in the halls, smelled the flowery scent of her perfume, felt her hand cupping his cheek when he awoke every morning. But he was scared. Because as time passed, as the memories escaped through his fingers, he slowly started forgetting her face, the color of her favorite dress, the exact pitch of her voice.

There was a reason he kept pictures of her all around his room. So he wouldn't forget.

"Adrien?"

He gasped, feeling how Plagg expertly scurried out of sight into his shirt.

"F-father."

The man pursed his lips at Adrien, looking coldly at him behind his glasses. "What are you doing in my study? You know you're not allowed in here."

Adrien gulped, feeling how the blood left his face. "I just… I was…"

Gabriel quirked an eyebrow at his son. "Would _you_ like me going through your things, Adrien? Just answer me that simple question."

"N-no."

Gabriel nodded. "Well then, if you don't respect my privacy, don't expect me to do it either. Consider that in the future, if you ever feel like invading someone's personal space."

Adrien rubbed the band of his messenger bag and looked away, feeling ashamed of himself. "Yes, father."

"You may leave."

The boy hurried out of the room, and Gabriel shut the door the second Adrien left. The man waited a moment before walking to the portrait of his wife. He opened it, opened the safe, and felt anger course through him.

The book was back.

Adrien locked the doors of his room for good measure. He let Plagg out, dumped his bag on the floor and plopped down on his desk chair, rotating with momentum.

"That was close," he said, his heart still thumping in his chest.

Plagg was focused on nibbling on the Camembert he left unfinished that morning. He didn't say anything.

Adrien looked to the window, indistinctly scanning the Parisian landscape.

Too many things happened today. Or rather, he learned too many things. Things that needed to be processed, and that he needed to decide how to feel about.

His father's book. The new addition to the team. But perhaps most importantly, the fact that Ladybug knew Master Fu. And that she chose to hide it from him.

He hated when people hid things from him. Especially those he loved.

It wasn't Marinette's turn to patrol that night but she decided to stay out in case she spotted the fox. She wanted to observe him closer before she and Chat actually introduced themselves. After hours of combing through the streets of Paris, she actually managed to find him in an industrial harbor adjacent to the Seine. She made a point of being as inconspicuous as she could, successfully thus far.

She caught faint trace of the fox's voice as he argued with himself. He seemed to be training with his flute. Ladybug saw how he'd play a four note tune, he'd hobble and lift from the ground for a few minutes, and then he'd come crashing down, slinging a few curses.

"No. No. No no no! Ugh, stupid flute!" He grabbed it with both hands and yelled at it. "Stop being so picky! I'm not playing for the Paris orchestra!" He didn't know if he was yelling at Tuli, but something told him he was listening. "If you wanted Chopin's Four Seasons you should maybe have thought about not picking an artist!" He sighed. After grumbling for a bit more, he picked himself up and tried again.

He failed again.

"If anything, It'll be an ego boost for those two."

She giggled. Unlike Chat, he seemed to have a self-deprecating sense of humor. A nice break, she was forced to admit.

She caught herself entertaining the possibility that the boy down there was Adrien. Her heart skipped a beat with guilt, but she reminded -or rather lied to herself, that she wasn't stalking him with that in mind. This was a mere reconnaissance mission. Then again, the idea was like the plague itself. It writhed and rattled at the back of her head, demanding to be acknowledged _: What if that's Adrien_?

Her compact buzzed with a message. Almost gladly, she hurried to open it, eager to find the only person that could contact her through the device.

 _CN: Out and about, I see._

She smirked.

 _LB: You're not the only one that likes to go solo from time to time._

 _CN: But the Seine?_

Her stomach suddenly dropped, remembering that both had the ability to know where the other was at any given time if they were transformed. All thanks to the not always handy GPS tracker on their weapons.

Another message: _"M'lady, if you were feeling romantic you could have just told me. I'd treat you to dinner on the tower ;3"_

She snorted. _"Trust me kitty, this part of the Seine is anything but romantic. Smells like rotten fish. Bet you'd love it, actually :P"_

 _CN: Your words wound me u_u Anyway, mind if I join? I have to talk to you. It's something important._

She silently pleaded it wasn't a love declaration. But Chat was right either way, they needed to talk. There was a certain fox-shaped elephant in the room that sorely needed to be acknowledged.

 _LB: Actually, yes. We do need to talk._

 _CN: Cool. I'll be there in ten._

In the meantime, Ladybug entertained herself trying to get closer to the fox without being spotted- no pun intended.

She lost track of time observing the newest, inexperienced Miraculous hero.

"Rumor has it there's another wielder."

Ladybug gasped, turning around to find nothing but shadows and a pair of acidic green eyes staring mischievously at her.

"Chat. You scared me."

"Not intentionally, m'lady. I swear."

Smugness overtook her, sensing her partner's flirting. "Always the gentleman."

Chat chuckled and walked out of the edge of the shadows to join Ladybug in the amber hues of the port's lampposts. Her attention was back on the fox wielder. Chat Noir rested his arm on her right shoulder.

"Warm night, isn't it?" He said, handing Ladybug one of the water bottles he picked up on his way there.

He snorted at the Fox's more than ungraceful antics. "Well, he's gonna come in handy."

"Aw, shush. Give him a break. He's trying hard, I've been watching him all afternoon. Besides, remember the first time I transformed?"

"All afternoon?"

Ladybug chose to ignore the faint edge of jealousy in Chat's voice. She shrugged. "I was doing reconnaissance."

"Who do you think he is?" He said, cocking his head.

Ladybug groaned. "What's with you and revealing secret identities?"

"Aw, come on, Ladybug. Aren't you curious to know?"

She glanced at him briefly through the corner of her eyes. "You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat."

"Good thing I got nine lives."

It only took his smirk for Ladybug to spot it. Right there, behind the cockiness of his expression and the way he wouldn't quite hold her stare.

"You okay, chaton?"

It took him aback just enough that he couldn't hide the sudden widening of his eyes, the twitch of his smile, in time for her not to notice.

After a moment of consideration, he simply smiled at her. "I'm fine, m'lady." Then he turned his attention to the Fox.

They fell silent. Ladybug knew Chat, knew that he was lying. Whether for her sake, for his, she didn't exactly know. But he was trying to hide something. At any rate, she didn't insist in cracking him open. Chat had this awful habit of pretending he was alright when something had hurt him, only to face it once he couldn't stand it anymore.

"We won't be the bug and cat team anymore," he commented quietly, without looking at her.

"It seems like it."

"Hmm."

"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?"

He glanced at her. "Yes."

No. Ladybug knew there was something else.

"I was patrolling the other day and he kind of appeared. I knew I had to tell you right away."

Ladybug felt a sudden pang of guilt for not seeking him out the second Tikki told her.

"There's another thing, though."

"Yes?"

"Master Fu told me."

If she didn't know any better, Ladybug would have sworn her heart stopped.

She turned to him with wide eyes and her stomach in a knot. Chat simply held her stare for a moment and then turned his back at her, putting some distance between them.

Silence. It was only accompanied by the sound of the flowing river and the distant voice of the Fox.

"Why didn't you tell me?" His question ripped Ladybug's heart in two, feeling more ashamed and pathetic than ever in her life.

 _Why didn't you tell him._

"Chaton-."

"Don't you trust me?"

"I do. Of course I do, Chat. You're my partner."

"Then?"

She searched his eyes and found she couldn't bear them. They held too much disappointment.

"I- I don't know. Look Chat, I- I just found out okay? I wanted to make sure it was safe for us-."

"I don't mean just the fox, Ladybug. Why didn't you tell me about the book?"

Ladybug fixed her eyes on Chat, unable to form a decent excuse.

"I... I don't know Chat. It all happened so fast. I mean, my Kwami was so impatient to have it and she wouldn't even explain to me what it was until she was about to take me to Master Fu. He didn't explain anything either. All I know that book is very important, that we might be able to defeat Hawkmoth now that Master Fu has it."

Chat Noir frowned and his ears drooped.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't think it was important, Chat. I didn't learn anything from it, and when I met Master Fu he forbid me from telling you about him. He said you had to go to him by your own means."

"I don't like it when you hide things from me," he muttered, looking to his feet. "It makes me feel like you don't trust me."

"I'm sorry, Chat Noir," she said sincerely. "I really felt awful about it, I swear. About Master Fu, I mean. And I was going to tell you about the fox in our patrol this week. I mean, it's not like I can go to your house and tell you these things the second I find out."

He smirked slightly. "Revealing identities, one. Keeping them secret, zero. I keep telling you, things would be easier if we knew each other."

She only smiled at him, then turned to the fox. "Speaking of which. There's something I need to tell you."

"Go on."

"I- I think I know who the Fox is."

Chat Noir widened his eyes, feeling how the bitter aftertaste of his disagreement with Ladybug morphed into utter shock.

"And I also think he has to do something with Hawkmoth."

He blinked a couple times. " _What?_ "

"Did Master Fu tell you whom I had to steal the book from?"

Chat could not find the strength to pronounce his own name. He was petrified.

"Perhaps you've heard of him: Adrien Agreste."

Chat's heart dropped down to his feet.

"Anyway," she turned more serious. "I saw him going into Master Fu's parlor the other day."

He coughed. "Re-really?"

She nodded. "Don't you think it's odd?"

"Odd? Odd like… de-define odd, my lady."

"Isn't it convenient that the Fox appeared at the same time Adrien Agreste started visiting Master Fu?"

Chat twisted his face into a confused frown. "I'm sorry, I don't follow," he said, while taking a sip from his water bottle. His throat was drier than sandpaper. Did she know? Was it possible?

Waiting a second longer would have caused him a heart attack.

"What if the Fox is Adrien Agreste?"

He downright spit out the water. He coughed, wheezed, and once he recovered, laughed. Loudly.

"What?" She said defensively.

He really couldn't stop. The Fox, him? Now that was grand.

"You- HA HA HA - You think Adrien Agreste is the Fox? Aw, man!"

"He very well could be!"

"Not!"

"How are you so sure? He did have the Miraculous book."

"My lady, I am a hundred and ONE percent sure that dumb fox is definitely NOT Adrien Agreste."

"Don't call him dumb!" She smacked his forearm. "He's our teammate now. Besides, I still think it could be him." She crossed her arms and pouted stubbornly.

"Oh, really now?" Adrien was too amused, if also slightly jealous. "Well," he said, tapping his chin playfully. "Last time I checked, Agreste is blonde."

"So? Your hair color can change with transformation."

Chat snorted and ran a hand through his hair, intentionally posing like his civilian self. Maybe that will give Ladybug some better ideas. "Well, I for one, am a natural blonde m'lady. You mean to tell me this is not the way you look on a daily basis?"

"M-my hair is not as bluish, so yes, it can."

"Okay. Let's say it can for your benefit. That still doesn't explain his eyes. I saw the fox last night and his are blue. Mine are green, they don't change. Furthermore," he pointed at a billboard nearby, with Adrien's face stamped on it. "Exhibit A: Green eyes," he said, batting his eyelashes and leaning uncomfortably close into Ladybug. She pushed his face away from her, laughing.

"So you're basically saying you're famous super model Adrien Agreste?" she said between giggles. His lack of response only fueled her laughter.

"What _? I_ could be for all that you know, m'lady." His heart jumped as he threw that out there. Technically, he shouldn't. But she was already theorizing his civilian self was a superhero- the wrong one, just his luck. What was a bit of insinuation other than a friendly push in the right direction? But to his great surprise and slight annoyance, Ladybug did nothing but laugh out loud.

"You, Adrien Agreste?" She snorted. "Right!"

Chat didn't know whether to laugh or cry. All he could do was stare dumbfounded at her, with his jaw hanging open in disbelief and swallowing a strong impulse to rip his hair off his scalp. "I very well could be, thank you very much," he said, rather offended.

She bit her lip as she tried with all her might not to laugh at her partner. "I'm sorry minou, but no. Not at all! I really can't see it. Adrien is… well, he's sweet, shy, polite, cute…"

"If I didn't know any better, Bugaboo, I'd say you have a good ol' crush on Adrien Agreste," he said smugly.

She didn't deny it nor confirm it, but Chat knew his Bug better than anyone, and that blush on her freckled cheeks was as much evidence as he needed.

"You do!"

"Shuddup."

He laughed. Well, she can't figure out he's behind the mask for the life of her, but at least he knows she has a crush on him! Better than nothing. "No wonder you want him to be a wielder!"

"Stop it, Chat Noir!"

"Sho yow can meowk owt with him between patrowls." He puckered his lips at her.

"Real mature. And I don't have a crush on him!"

"Lady and Adrien sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i- OW! What'd you smack me for?"

"'Cause you're being dumb and annoying."

He chuckled, rubbing the spot on his head Ladybug slapped. "Uh huh."

"You can't be Adrien Agreste, Chat. He's not a dork like you."

"What's that supposed to even mean?"

"Well, you're you. You're the total opposite of Adrien."

Chat Noir flushed and laughed still not letting her taunting get the best of him. "Well, it's not like you know him! You wouldn't know what he's like."

"What if I do?" She taunted, poking her tongue out. Chat widened his eyes, and in that moment, both knew they probably talked a little more than they should.

"You know him?" It wasn't a question, it was an affirmation.

The lightness of Ladybug's jokes turned into sudden lead.

"I-I've saved him a couple times, if that's what you mean… Y-you know him?"

Chat Noir froze in place, frantically calculating the risks of telling her it actually was him. She did know him in civilian form. He could tell when she was bluffing. So why didn't she see? Why couldn't she put two and two together? She already said Adrien could be a wielder, and her first suspect was that stranger? Why not him? Her trusted partner, her friend?

"I… " After careful consideration, he chuckled and playfully nudged her. "I actually do, Bugaboo. I might even try to introduce you one day."

She smiled and searched his eyes for the lie. "You can't be serious."

He shrugged. "Have I ever lied to you, Bugaboo?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Then again, I don't see the point in giving myself unnecessary competition. I'm the only blonde you need in your life, m'lady." He winked.

Ladybug was about to reply to his flirting when a sudden, "THAT IS IT!" and a chaotic noise interrupted them. Seconds after, they saw a copper bulk fly right over them, spiral a few times, and then plummet straight onto a garbage container.

"Uhh..." They both winced and hopped to the roof the fox fell from.

"That's gonna leave a bruise," Chat commented, familiar with the occupational hazards of being tossed and hurled around in combat.

"How high do you think he fell from?" Ladybug asked.

Tin cans and plastic bottles shuffled, the Fox grunted and poked his head out of the trash. "Enough."

Ladybug couldn't help but giggle. "Well, at least he has a sense of humor," she said, then swung her yoyo to get to the floor.

Chat Noir stayed behind for a second, unable to suppress the annoyance inside him.

 _I have a sense of humor._

He shook his head, and hopped down. _You're his partner, he's a teammate._

"Uh... Fox?" Ladybug stood on her tiptoes, too small to see over the edge of the trash container. "Are you okay?"

It was easier for Chat, who only had to peek to see the figure struggle to surface above the garbage.

"You okay there?" he asked with a tone not nearly as warm or welcoming as Ladybug's.

"I'm not an akuma, please don't hurt me!" The Fox peeked out of the trash just enough to look at them.

"Don't worry," Ladybug said. "We won't."

The Fox eyed Chat warily, remembering how he almost smacked him unconscious the night Marinette got mugged.

As if reading his mind, Chat nodded. "You're okay. Come on, grab my hand," he said, sighing with resignation.

Nathaniel noticed how easily Chat Noir pulled him out of the container and flushed with shame as he and Ladybug dusted him off. Ladybug smirked and grabbed a gnawed fish that hung from the Fox's shoulder.

"Look Chat, your lunch," she said and threw the foul smelling thing to his face.

"Ew!" He swatted at it and evaded it, thanks to his cat reflexes.

Ladybug laughed at Chat's glare. "Ha, ha."

She grinned. "Cats love fish."

A chuckle escaped Nathaniel's lips as he witnessed the banter between these two. From all the things he expected them to be, silly was not one of them. Serious, committed, no nonsense, yes. Dumb, sassy, sarcastic? Not so much. He liked it, though. It made him feel like he wasn't wrong about them: behind the mask they were teenagers just like him.

"See? The Fox agrees with me."

Nath gulped at the sight of Chat's glare.

"I-I meant no di-disrespect Chat. I mean, Chat Noir, sir. Uh... And so-sorry about the other day!"

Ladybug giggled. "You don't have to call him that! You'll encourage him."

"No, no, let him. I like the sound of Sir Chat Noir. He knows who's the alpha cat." He puffed out his chest and flicked his bangs.

"I'm technically a canine..."the Fox said with a small voice. "Bu-but you can be the alpha cat."

"The only alpha here is the alpha bug," Ladybug said smugly. "You can fight me on that, Chat."

He poked out his tongue, feigning irritation.

Nath couldn't help but smile at the two.

"So let's look at you," Ladybug said. "The real Fox Miraculous. I never thought we'd get to meet you! What's your name?"

"I'm uh..." Nathaniel scratched the back of his head. "That's actually a good question."

"You don't have a name?" Chat said accusingly.

With a flare he could only attribute to the freedom of anonymity, Nath snarked back, "Yeah, I've been waiting all my life for this moment to get christened."

Catching drift of the fox's sass, Chat pretended to banter instead of letting it show how sorely he took the comment. "Then I'll call you Firefox, cause all you seem to do is crash," he said.

"Chat Noir!" Ladybug scolded him.

"What? I mean, look at his costume. We'll get sued if we're ever seen with him."

"Bet you're in hot water with Hello Kitty, then," Nath quickly fired back.

Ladybug laughed at Chat's pout. "Hey, don't give me those eyes, you started it. But Chat's right, you need a name."

"It has to be something original," Chat instructed.

"Says the guy who called himself Chat Noir, and is literally a black cat," Ladybug teased him, amused by how territorial he was behaving. It was always funny, and a tad endearing if she had to admit it, when Chat got jealous. "You could call yourself Red Fox," Ladybug suggested.

"That's copying!" Chat said.

"It's not," Ladybug replied.

"It's too."

"How is it copying if I'm Ladybug, and I'm literally a ladybug?" she said exasperatedly.

"Cause I called myself Chat Noir first. You copied me too, my lady," he said poking his tongue at her.

Ladybug simply rolled her eyes. "Dork."

"Let's call him Nicholas Wilde," Chat Noir suggested.

"Only if I get to call you Felix the Cat" Nath replied.

"No, you get to call me Sir Chat Noir."

"Okay, okay, we'll leave the name for later," Ladybug said with a definitive tone, already dreading the direction the boys' interactions would take. "What about your powers, do you know what they are?"

"I can shapeshift," Nath said. "But only for like, nine minutes total."

"Total?" Chat Noir quirked an eyebrow.

"I get three transformations. My first transformation lasts five minutes, then the second, three, and the last, one. I should be able to fly... or hover, I'm not sure yet. And Trixx said I can also make illusions, but I have to learn to play the flute for that."

yoLadybug and Chat Noir looked at each other like they had caught the strangest animal alive.

"I-I've been practicing though! It's not as easy as it looks." Nath rubbed his arm and looked down to hide his embarrassment. "I mean, for me. It- it must be easier for you guys. I'll try not to be a drag, I promise! A-and Trixx said I could join you when I was ready, so you don't have to worry about me getting in the way. You don't really need me yet, or at least that's what Trixx said."

"It sounds like Trixx knows a lot," Ladybug said. "Is that your kwami?"

Nath nodded and in return Ladybug gave him a smile. A kind smile, the type of expression she reserved for Manon or Chat when they needed encouragement.

"Well, you were chosen for a reason, there's no point in stalling," Chat Noir said, a little more stern and ignoring Ladybug's scolding glance. She was giving him too much leeway, in his opinion. They didn't get an adjustment period when Master Fu gave them their Miraculous. Besides, being a superhero was not the type of thing you studied for, or plunged into until you felt "ready." If he had waited to think about it when Plagg materialized in his room things would have ended badly.

"Don't listen to him, you can take as long as you need to," said Ladybug, and ignored Chat Noir's objecting glance. She was no stranger to feeling inadequate and underprepared. The fact that she was forced to jump into action when she became Ladybug was still one of the most upsetting memories she had. If she had someone to guide her back then, something of a superhero big brother, things would have been different. Of course, Chat Noir gave her the confidence she needed to act, but the first few months she couldn't help but wish for someone more experienced to show her the way.

"How is he going to learn, then?" Chat crossed his arms.

"By patrolling with us, and watching our battles with akuma." She turned to Nath. "We usually patrol together Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Chat patrols Sundays and Wednesdays, and I do it Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"You sure worked out a schedule," Nath said.

"Well, people usually have bad days on Mondays," said Chat.

"And they fire people on Fridays," Ladybug continued.

"Couples usually break-up on the early weekend," Chat explained. "With a few exceptions like the back-to-back akumas, Hawkmoth is pretty predictable. Or rather, the people he akumatizes are."

Something about that comment irked Nath, but he didn't show it. The fact that they were accustomed to anticipating people's emotions and disregarding them as a simple battle in the making was kind of crude to him, but it was all in a day's work, he guessed. After fighting akumas constantly for a year now, he could see how it became mechanic for the sake of practicality.

"Besides Chat has a million extracurriculars or something like that, and we both go to school." Ladybug shrugged. "We had to work something out. You'll have to come with us at least three times a week, so you learn our routes, and you'll get one yourself once you master your flying."

"And you have to show up to akuma fights," said Chat.

"E-even if I'm the middle of school, or like, a doctor's appointment?"

Both nodded.

"Part of the deal," Chat Noir said. "Being a superhero is not all fun and games."

Ladybug actually looked at him when he said that. He surprised her. They usually didn't talk a lot about what being a superhero meant for them, but because of his demeanor Ladybug always thought Chat saw it as a game where he could punch bad guys and flirt with her. Nothing else. But for the first time since she met him, she saw deeper. Of course Chat was dorky and silly, but she never stopped to consider what kinds of sacrifices he had to make in his daily civilian life to be Chat Noir. She'd have to ask him about that sometime later.

"Okay," the fox agreed. "I'll try."

"So," Ladybug said, unclipping her yoyo from her waist and spinning it a few times. "Are you ready for your first patrol?"


	5. Cat Versus Fox

"All you have to do is jump," Ladybug said encouragingly as the three masked teens stood on the edge of one of the highest buildings in Paris.

The Fox twisted his flute tightly. "I don't know, that looks like a very ugly fall."

"It's only a fall if you can't fly," Chat Noir pointed out. "And you can fly, right?"

"Right," the Fox said hesitantly.

"That's what you said."

"I said I technically could," the Fox said staring at the void. "That doesn't mean I actually can."

"We'll find out soon, then," Chat said with a smirk that the Fox did not appreciate.

"Well, don't look so happy about it," the Fox said, gulping.

"Don't worry, you'll do fine," Ladybug said. "It's always scary the first time. But you'll manage, it's in you after all."

"What's in me precisely? Because the will to die is not and I'm having second thoughts about this whole gig."

"You are the Fox Wielder, with or without the mask," Chat Noir said.

"We really need to get moving, Fox," Ladybug said, sounding apologetic. "Sorry."

"That-that's fine. You guys go ahead, I can just watch. Honest. I think it might be better."

"Have you thought about a name yet?" Chat asked casually, standing right behind the Fox without him noticing. He was too busy calculating how fast he'd drop to the ground.

"Name? I was thinking Renard Rouge but I'm not sure yet. It's a little, I don't know. Why?

"Oh Renard Rouge, nice. Sorry, by the way," said Chat, nonchalantly.

"Sorry? For wha- AH!"

Chat pushed him into the abyss, plunging after him seconds later with Ladybug trailing right behind him.

"AHHH!" The Fox kept screaming, and shouting every curse he knew in his books.

"Fly!" Chat shouted at him, preparing to extend his baton. "Do it!" The ground got closer by the second. "NOW!"

Instinctively, Nathaniel unsheathed the flute and put it to his lips. He played indistinct notes, the little four note tune that he had been practicing. Smoke formed around him, his tail igniting only briefly, as he hit an invisible sort of trampoline that redirected his fall upwards. Soon enough, he fell his body loosing height again, letting himself scream and flail around. Chat extended his baton at the same time he bounced around the sky to make sure he was safe- The fact he didn't like him didn't mean he could just outright kill him. He was a teammate, after all.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING FLEA BAG!" the Fox screamed, not sharing his opinion. "You pushed me off the building!"

Chat smirked, masterfully controlling his trajectory through the skyline. "Language! And please, if I left it to you we'd still be waiting. Careful, time to land." Chat nodded at the building where Ladybug was.

An expansion of his baton and a flip in midair was all Chat needed to land softly next to Ladybug. Easy as breathing.

"That was unnecessary, chaton," Ladybug said with a slight smirk that let Chat Noir she wasn't entirely against his mentoring methods.

He shrugged. "Different parenting styles, my lady."

"Parenting styles?" She laughed.

Chat winked and opened his mouth to flirt some more.

"WATCH OUT!" Renard Rouge roared, crash-landing against Chat Noir and causing for both to roll around the gravel a few times.

They groaned.

"Get _off_ me," Chat demanded. "Ow, OW MY TAIL!"

"It's your karma for pushing me to my death."

Ladybug hurried to help them up by untangling Chat's tail from Renard Rouge's foot and helping Chat up while Renard dusted himself off.

"Gotta work on that landing," Ladybug commented.

Renard Rouge blushed as deep as his own hair. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I didn't get it on my first try either." As if sensing Chat's oncoming intervention, she added, "And Chat, well. Chat's Chat. So don't mind him."

"Overeager?" Renard said, just to see Chat's insulted expression.

"That too," Ladybug said, not paying attention to him but instead orienting herself to try and figure out just exactly where in Paris they were. "He's a natural at this whole superhero thing," she mumbled unimportantly, focused on the task at hand. "Ah, there we go! Yep." She consulted her compact just in case her sense of orientation was wrong.

Chat Noir's heart tripped in his chest at how casually she complimented him. Sure, she'd congratulate him every time he did something right or devised a specially clever plan but she had never gone as far as telling him- really telling him he was good at being a superhero. There was a nagging thought that always gnawed Chat's gut. That Ladybug really didn't need him and that more often than not he ended up being a drag but she was just too kind to tell him the truth. And now she said he was good- no, _a natural superhero_.

"Okay, so we have the city divided into 7 different quadrants. Like a cake. One day, one quadrant. One, five, and six are the ones Chat and I patrol together because Chat actually realized that's where the most akumas tend to happen. Three and four are mine, two and seven are his." Ladybug pointed at a certain direction, spinning on the heel of her toes as she indicated Renard which way was each quadrant. Today is quadrant three, because it's Wednesday. We'll follow Chat's route."

He nodded and then turned to Renard as he unclipped his baton from his back. "Try to keep up."

They let Renard try and take the lead this time. Before they both jumped after him to make sure he wouldn't hurt himself, Chat muttered insecurely, in a way that was more like Adrien than Chat. "Thanks for the compliment, Ladybug."

He didn't let her reply, as fast as the words were out of his mouth, he jumped off the building.

Something warm sparked in Ladybug's chest. A warmth she was deft in quenching as soon as it appeared.

Focus. They have to train Renard. No time for Chat.

He was a fast learner, Chat noticed with a huff as he vaulted through the rooftops of the city with the Fox- Renard Rouge- closely behind his tail. The only thing that kept the newest addition to the team from taking the lead was his inexperience, which was rapidly fading. Chat Noir forced himself to push harder, jump higher, run faster. That fox would _not_ outrun him on his first patrol. But for Nath this wasn't a competition, this was about experiencing a revelation, tasting true freedom, with the wind and the sights and the heights. Nathaniel had never felt so alive in his entire sixteen years of existence.

Paris was a creature, he discovered. It was alive. Its streets were like veins, it breathed and sighed. He felt the magic of the Miraculous syncing with him as he hopped from building to building. He felt the shifts in the energy between place and place, like a tingling sensation that ran up and down his spine. He caught himself wondering how he'd ever be afraid of becoming a Miraculous wielder. He'd never get tired of this.

"You're learning fast!" Ladybug commented, having no problem to catch up with him.

"This is amazing!" Renard said.

Ladybug giggled. "It has its pros, yes."

"I've never had so much fun in my entire life!"

Ladybug noticed that Renard Rouge started having trouble keeping up after a while, so she decided to call for a break. Chat Noir took them to one of his usual break spots: The roof of a small but busy ice cream parlor on Rue de la Rochienne 13, La Chambre de la Coccinelle, named after no one else than his lady herself. On quiet nights, Adrien would detransform and buy himself an ice cream cone. He'd sit at the back of the shop on a secluded booth and listened to people's conversations, happy to be comforted by the sugary smells and bubbly laughter of the Parisians.

As they sat upon the roof of the ice cream parlor, Ladybug remembered that Chat Noir once brought this place up in conversation, flirting, none the less. She recalled him inviting her for an ice cream cone in their civilian identities.

"You'd probably melt for me, my lady," he said that time, with a wink. To which Ladybug only rolled her eyes that time. She dismissed it. But now she kept glancing at Chat Noir, occasionally meeting his glance as well. She could tell he also remembered.

"So what do we do now?" Renard Rouge asked, uncomfortably seeing that Chat Noir and Ladybug took a spot by the edge of the building.

"We sit," Chat Noir said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Sit?"

The cat furrowed his eyebrows. "Is there anything else to do?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Renard said, half in shock, half completely offended. "You mean to tell me that the only thing you do on patrol nights is go around buildings, and then just _sit_? No wonder you haven't found Hawkmoth you-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence. The words clumped around his throat, forming a gasp. A shiver ran through him. It felt cold, so cold. He felt an invisible force course through him, followed by a distinct notion of fear, anger, cholera.

"What was that?" he asked, voice quivering.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were silent and only fixed their eyes in the horizon, in the direction of Notre Dame.

"Guys?"

"Shh!" Chat Noir scolded him. "It's a big one."

As if to prove him right, the ground trembled. All of Paris did. Suddenly, a monster as high as the Eiffel Tower crawled out of Notre Dame, busting the western tower. It was a nasty thing. A humanoid that wore a priest's hat and carried a trident. Horns poked out of his head and his skin had the texture of cooled down magma. Staring at his eyes was like staring at death itself.

"Is that… is that a priest?" Renard asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"I think so," Ladybug said with dread. "Poor man."

"How- but… isn't he a good person? Aren't you supposed to be a good person if you're a priest?" Renard shrieked as the akuma tore the remnants of Notre Dame like it was a sand castle.

"Good people are the worst," Chat Noir said.

"What do you mean?"

He glanced at him briefly. "There's as much bad as there is good in you. There is always a balance."

"Like Yin and Yang," Ladybug said. "If you are an extremely good person you have it in you to be as extremely evil. Kind people are always the worst akumas."

She detached her yoyo from her hip. "Ready, Chat?"

"Whenever you are, my lady."

"And what do I do?" Renard said.

Chat turned to him. "You go home."

"What?"

"Go home. It's dangerous."

"But-but aren't I supposed to learn?"

"Chat Noir is right, Renard. This is not a good akuma for you to learn with."

"LADYBUG, CHAT NOIR!"

"That's our cue, LB."

She nodded. "Go, Renard."

They jumped into action without letting Nathaniel reply. He witnessed dumbfounded, how they skillfully swung and vaulted from building to building, reaching heights that no human lungs could bear. He watched them become tiny dots in the distance, battling the Devil -which was the name of the Akuma.

Let it be said he tried to follow their orders. He did, honest. But he just couldn't tear his eyes apart from the scene, in part because how terrified he was and also because as scared as he was a big part of him felt like he was compelled to take action despite his incompetence.

His heightened sight allowed him to easily spot Chat Noir as he was tossed across the skyline like a nagging insect, closely followed by Ladybug.

"No, no, no, no…" Renard Rouge whispered to himself, frantically searching the pair of heroes. "Please get up, please get up. Don't make me go in there…"

Seconds passed, then he saw them charging the monster again. And again, they were knocked down. Before they could regroup, the monster tore down every building in its way and set them on fire with its touch. It certainly looked like hell in there.

"They need a distraction," Renard Rouge muttered to himself, seeing how Chat's efforts were coming up short. He had to constantly tear himself between distracting the Akuma and protecting Ladybug from its blows.

He clasped his hands around the flute and fixed his eyes on the monster, as far away as it was. His better judgement told him to run away, to hide, to follow Chat Noir and Ladybug's instructions.

 _Be rational, chances are you'll only make it worse._

But it was hard to ignore the screaming, the crying.

The tug he felt on his chest was more powerful than any insecurities, any rationality he could confront. Yes, this wasn't the ideal first fight, it certainly did not look easy. But being a hero wasn't about doing things the easy way.

 _Just get closer and assess the situation._

He put the flute to his lips and played the little four-note tune he was familiar with, helping himself hover as he jumped between buildings.

The four notes wouldn't do, he noticed. Not if he wanted to be of any help, and by the looks of it, if he was going to help he had to do it now.

 _Think Nath, think._

"Of course, a library!" he exclaimed and hopped from the roof where he was to an open window in the library.

He ran to the front desk to find the coding guide, trying his best to ignore the people huddled beneath the tables, who whispered among each other about the Akuma in the library.

"Music… music… 420 to 450!"

He ran through the shelves until he found what he wanted.

"Hope I can borrow this without a library card!" he said and rushed to the street. Not that the book would be of much use, of course. The first sight that greeted him was that of a young mother pushing a stroller as fast as she could to avoid a falling building.

Nath gasped and at that point instinct overtook his body. He played the flute and darted to the woman's direction, first taking the baby and then her, out of the way. There was something familiar about her face but he didn't stop to consider what, there were other people in the way of the falling debris that also needed help.

"Go, take cover!" He shouted at the civilians, shooing them away with his hands as the ground trembled with the steps of the giant magma Akuma.

"Well, well, well... what do we have here."

Renard Rouge froze, sweating in cold. He turned around slowly to find the Akuma kneeling to street level, staring right into Nath's eyes. He gulped.

"My, my, a new Miraculous wielder." He picked Renard Rouge from the ground with no effort to inspect him closer.

From a distance, Chat gasped. "Ladybug! He has Renard!"

 _Take his Miraculous,_ a voice inside the Akuma's head instructed it.

Renard Rouge squirmed to no avail, causing the Akuma to laugh.

"I could simply crush you right now, you realize that?"

"I'm not afraid of you... or you, Hawkmoth!"

The Akuma brought Renard closer to his face, close enough that he could smell its sulphurous breath and to realize that the akumatized object was a jewel on his hat.

"No? You should."

He had wiggled enough that the flute was now within reach of his mouth and he could play it. He only had one shot at this.

"Hey you, rock face!" Chat Noir yelled right before slapping the priest hard behind his head.

That was his cue. While the Akuma was distracted, he played the notes he memorized from the book in the library and focused as hard as he could on becoming... Nothing. Invisible. Air.

"Where'd it go?" The Akuma let go of him, confused. But while Nath was scrambling to get to the top of the hat he had not noticed Ladybug rushing to do that herself, as it usually went when it was only her and Chat. At the same moment, Nath's invisibility wore off.

"Got you," growled the monster, spotting Renard Rouge's reflection on the glass of a building.

He grabbed him and violently tossed him across the skyline, but not without smashing some constructions first.

"No!" Chat screamed, as some of the debris knocked Ladybug out of her trajectory. What was worse, a toppling apartment building was slowly and dangerously leaning in the direction of the street, where a school bus had been trapped in traffic.

Renard Rouge was the only one close enough to do anything about it, but his fall had been a nasty one. He barely could stand.

"Renard!" He heard Chat scream. "Renard, the kids! Oomph!" The Akuma smacked him off his feet.

Nath didn't know where he gathered the strength or the agility from, but mechanically—almost as a knee-jerk reaction—he played his flute, turned into a copy of the Akuma itself, and pulled the school bus out of the way of the falling building. The transformation wore out almost immediately and the bus landed unceremoniously out of harm's way. A few scratches and bruises, but the passengers, a sixth grade class, would be okay.

Nath dedicated himself to lead people out of danger for the rest of the attack. Parisians were confused, just like Chat Noir had been before, but he tried his best to be kind and reassuring. After all, he knew better than Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves how it felt to be on the other end of the line when an Akuma was happening. Defenseless, scared, at the mercy of chance.

Renard was catching his breath, sitting on a bench when Ladybug and Chat Noir joined them after purifying the Akuma. His back was hunched and held his head on his hands.

"This is too much," he muttered, knowing they were listening. "That—that was so scary. I don't know I could do it agai-."

"You don't think it was scary for those kids you almost killed?" Chat reprehended severely, in a way Ladybug had _never_ heard him talk.

Nath looked up, evidently conflicted. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I messed up, I know but-."

"No, there is no but," Chat said. "We told you to stay away from this one. It was one simple request. One."

"You were in trouble."

"Yes Renard, but we've been in trouble before and we know what we are doing! And if we told you not to get involved is because we knew the kind of fight we were up to. And you just... you didn't things through! It's not a game, there are consequences when we mess up."

"Chat..." Ladybug intervened, sounding a little softer. "Calm down."

He breathed and pinched his nose. He looked at Renard, and felt a little sorry. He reminded him of Ladybug the first time they fought together. He shook his head.

"I'm sorry I messed up," Nath said, getting up from the bench. "Look, I—I won't be in your way anymore. I'll return the Miraculous. I'm not meant for this."

"No, Renard, wait..."

He left before Ladybug could make her point.

She glanced at Chat Noir, who was still frowning.

"Happy?"

"No."

"What got into you?" She said. "You were very harsh with him."

"You saw what was going to happen, Ladybug. Things would not have gotten out of hand if he had just done what we asked him to. He wasn't thinking."

She gave him a look. "Like you do, from time to time?"

"And when I do the risk is related to me, Ladybug. Not to other people."

"Well, but the fact that he made a mistake doesn't mean he won't get better, and you know that."

He sighed. "I told Master Fu we didn't need another teammate."

"Is this what all this is about then?"

Chat widened his eyes. "N-no." A little bit, yes. But not entirely. "It's just that-."

Both Miraculouses beeped. They looked at each other, for the first time wishing they could have more time to sort things out. To sit down, maybe over a cup of tea, to discuss. It wasn't only that Renard Rouge had committed what could have been a very costly mistake. This was also about Chat, Ladybug noticed.

The jewels beeped again.

"See you later, Ladybug," said Chat, and with that, he left.


	6. A Miraculous Festival

Renard Rouge stopped showing up to his "training" after what happened with his first Akuma, but Adrien wished he would come back. His absence, as ironic as it may be, had taken a toll with Ladybug. She wasn't happy with him, and every time they tried to talk about the subject, they ended up doing something they were not used to do: arguing. On one hand, he knew he was right. A big part about being a superhero was to protect people, at all costs. On the other, Ladybug was right, and Chat Noir had let a jealous streak to blind his judgment about Renard and any other potential teammate. This was unexplored territory for both of them, the place where no matter what they did, they simply could not agree. Adrien found himself wishing the fox had not appeared at all. Things were better, unperturbed and smooth when he wasn't around.

"You need to practice some introspection," Master Fu said calmly as he blew the steam off his freshly brewed cup of tea. It was Saturday, and on Saturdays, Chat Noir dropped by to have some tea.

Adrien sulked and crossed his arms. "You know I'm right! And—and... ugh! She _knows_ I'm right but she won't admit it! I mean, I know I may have overreacted a little bit but Renard needs to understand the consequences of messing up. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever messed up, for example? One Cataclysm gone wrong and boop! I murder some random Parisian."

"He didn't mess up, though. He helped you."

Adrien sighed heavily. "I know... I just wish we could just get over this. Why did things become so complicated all of a sudden?"

"I have told you before, there will be others. The times of you and Ladybug being by yourselves are in the past, I'm afraid."

Adrien looked down, unknowingly pouting.

"Why does it bother you so much?"

"Huh?"

"It's not the fact that you have another teammate. It's the fact things changed between you and Ladybug. Why does it bother you?"

He squirmed a little bit as he struggled to word it out. "I just... I thought Ladybug and I had a connection and, well, with more people coming, she won't see me anymore. She'll forget about me the same way... the same way it happened at home. The anniversary of my mom's disappearance is in a few days and... I mean, I don't want Ladybug to forget me and..." He couldn't finish his sentence.

Master Fu pressed his lips knowing there was more to the story than what Adrien knew, but he could not help but feel for the boy. "Your love for Ladybug—and the love she has for you—won't go away. It will always be there. What must change is your ability to put it aside for the greater good. You can always come back to it of course, but there are moments as a wielder, where you must rise above your own desires. And I have no doubt you will succeed, Adrien. Your heart is bigger than you know."

Adrien wiped the tears that had collected on his eyes, processing Master Fu's wisdom. After a meditative silence, he asked, "Do you really think she loves me?" Effectively prying a laugh from Master Fu.

He smiled at the young wielder. "Those are enough questions for today. Go and come to terms with Renard. Make it work."

"Good news guys!" Said their Social Science teacher, one post-Akuma, dreadful morning. Adrien could barely keep his eyes open. Akumas had gotten a little harder to beat lately, and that meant fewer sleep hours.

"The government of Paris just announced they will be organizing a festival to honor the first anniversary of Ladybug and Chat Noir protecting the city."

The class cheered while Marinette, Adrien, and Nath perked up, slightly uncomfortable. Funny that the city would want to celebrate at such an uncomfortable moment in their partnership.

"The city of Paris has asked for everyone to contribute with what they can. Our school will be part of an art competition," she said as she passed out informational pamphlets. "It's free-form and there is no limit as how many students participate per team, only that the number of participants is congruent with the art type. It won't be a mandatory activity but you will get extra credits if you engage."

Ms. Simon finished the announcement and disposed to begin the lecture, unaware that some students were already furiously scribbling their ideas. Nino, Alya, and Chloe were some of the people Nath could spot. He already knew of the festival. The "Miraculous Festival," ugh. He still cringed at the name. That morning before going to school he saw the news. The city of Paris would be mounting a wall on the grounds of the Eiffel Tower, where the festival would take place so that a certain muralist could leave his mark. To say the least, Nath was a little more than mortified. Not only inspiration had left him momentarily, but he was also facing a block, quite like the wall itself.

He had yet to transform again or to find that Chinese old man who gave him the Miraculous, as Trixx wouldn't tell of his whereabouts. Either way, there was a decision to be made soon. He gulped and tried, for once, to pay attention to class.

Days passed and with them, Paris grew ready to celebrate their heroes. Each night it was more evident, even though Ladybug and Chat Noir tried as hard as they could to evade the subject.

"Ladybug, I'm sorry," Chat said, interrupting the silence of an especially calm patrol. The wind blew and rustled the dry September leaves of the plants along the promenade they were looking over.

"I'm sorry I overreacted at Renard, and I'm sorry that I've been such a pain about him joining the team. It's just that...I was—I am a little scared."

Ladybug turned to him with curiosity. "Why would you be scared?"

He fumbled with his baton in a way that was more Adrien than Chat. "Because things would be different between you and me."

He felt Ladybug reach for his hand and squeeze it. "Oh, kitty." She shook her head from side to side. "That's not going to happen. You're my best friend."

He chuckled. "But we won't have time to hang out anymore."

"I'm sure we will come up with some ideas," she said, tentatively reaching out to hug him. Chat sighed with relief and welcomed her gesture. "Who knows, maybe I'll start taking you up on those picnics you insists on… I'm also sorry. You were right, we can't afford to make mistakes, and I shouldn't have been so cold to you about it."

Chat squeezed her tightly. "It's okay LB."

When they broke apart, they redirected their attention to a nearby billboard that advertised "the biggest party of the year: The Miraculous Festival!" They made jokes about how weird it was to have all that attention and the fact that they most likely would have to work that day because someone was bound to be akumatized on such a big event.

"You do know they made us a formal invitation, right?" Ladybug said, chuckling.

"Yeah, I saw it on the eight p.m. news with Nadja Schamack the other day."

"Would you like to go?"

Ladybug smiled while swinging her feet off the skyscraper they were sitting on. "Well, it's not like we have another choice. Imagine how devastated they'd be if we don't show up? Hawkmoth would run out of butterflies to akumatize."

He laughed. "Good point. But I mean, you know... like, with me?"

"How else would I go, kitty? There's no Ladybug without Chat Noir." She lifted up her fist so that he would bump it. He rolled his eyes good heartedly and reciprocated their trademark salutation. As they parted ways that night, Chat Noir wondered if Ladybug was pretending she didn't notice he was trying to ask her on a date, or if he was just too dense for this type of things.

You could feel the excitement in the air in the days prior to the Miraculous Festival. The stages built at the foot of the Eiffel Tower gave a hint of what Paris advertised as the biggest party of the year. The city would be chaotic, no doubt, with visitors from all over France and the rest of the world wanting to have a glimpse of the acclaimed Miraculous Ladybug and Chat Noir. The government of Paris threw the house out the window, no doubt with influence from Chloe Bourgeois herself. The city planned out a whole week of events around the celebration. Cultural events, roundtables, symposiums... there was something for everyone. The transport system had made an especial edition ticket in honor of the heroes and the Louvre had mounted a special exposition of some alleged miraculous relics that it had managed to get its hands on for this occasion specifically. The city's monuments lit up in red, black, and green, and there were even meet-and-greets with fake Ladybugs and Chat Noirs. If Marinette had, to be honest, it was all a bit surreal for her.

It's not that she wasn't grateful for Paris' admiration. It's just that it was hard to pretend to be that excited for yourself, especially when your school was suffering from a fashion fever of polka dotted garments, chokers with bells, cat ears, and sometimes even furry tails. She couldn't keep in the chuckle when she walked into the art room and found Marc wearing a full fur Chat Noir suit. Adrien, who was also in the room to collaborate with the class art project for the festival, seemed a little uncomfortable.

"What is _that_ , Marc?" Marinette said, trying to not sound too amused but aiming at genuine curiosity.

He sighed. "Yeah, you can laugh, too. It's funny. It is."

"What happened?" Marinette said, a few giggles escaping her discipline.

"Well, this morning I had like, three periods off, and I volunteered for one of those meet-and-greets. Now, I show up there, thinking the most I have to do is put on some black clothes and a mask and instead they stick me into this abomination."

Nath, who was nearby, approached to hear the story again with a grin on his face.

"So the meet-and-greet, it was actually an art session on the lobby of the Louvre with a class of five-year-olds."

"Oh no..." Marinette said covering her mouth, so as to stifle the laugh.

"Next thing you know, one of these... darlings trips over his own shoes and spills a whole bowl of paintbrush water on my real, decent citizen clothes. And well, couldn't change back into _that_. So here we are, in this effing tragedy."

Nath and Marinette were clutching their sides, bent over in both pain from laughing so much, and pure, unaffected joy.

"Oh my god..." Marinette was wheezing. "Oh Marc, I'm so sorry... you better not let Chloe see you because she will roast you."

"Oh no," he said deadpan, unaffected by the pair's avian cackling. "She beat you to it. What did she call me?... Ah yes, 'a shame to the furry community and every costume enthusiast'."

He stirred a new wave of roaring laughter.

"You should get a prize for not being akumatized," Nath said, wiping out the tears from his eyes.

"And for riding the metro wearing that thing."

Marc, finally cracking under the contagious snickering of his friends, also chuckled. "Pretty sure I'm already profiled as some sort of molester by the CCTV."

Adrien, who had tentatively inched closer to the conversation whilst Marc was recalling the events, was now close enough to be included in the conversation but shy to do so by himself. Especially because he wasn't very fond of Nath these days.

"Whatcha think Agreste," he said good-naturedly, noticing his wanting to join but not knowing how. "What you think about this... unfortunate rendition?"

Marinette laughed. Adrien couldn't help but smile himself. He took a good look at the god-awful suit and chuckled. "I think it's a cat-astrophe. Chat Noir himself would cataclysm it out of the face of this earth."

Everybody laughed, and Marinette couldn't help but notice a weird familiarity in how he had delivered the joke. Something about the slightly smug flair he gave it reminded her of Chat. She forgot as soon as the thought came up though, for their teacher had come into the room and the bell had rung, announcing the beginning of their session.

Giving Marc a double-take, he welcomed the students. "All right guys, thank you for joining our last Miraculous session. Let me remind you today is the last day to hand in your personal projects. We will also begin with the recording sessions for our joint video at a quarter past sixteen. Remember you will have three minutes to answer the prompt: What do you admire the most of Ladybug and, or, Chat Noir? You may talk among each other while you work on your personal projects so long as you're not disrupting others. So, have fun!"

Marinette knew Alya and Nino wouldn't show up to the class until it was time to shoot the video, so she opted to go sit by herself. She had learned the dangers of sitting next to Marc and Nathaniel. No one's project ever ended well when that happened, and hers was quite behind as it was. She found a spot near a window to have some natural light, set up her tripod and went for her utensils.

She set to work, but not without being completely aware of the fact Adrien was working two seats away from her. He was wearing thick-framed glasses, a habit she noticed he had whenever he was to work on a computer. His whole attention was consumed by the screen as he diligently clicked but turned to her as he felt her stare. In her panic, she almost knocked down her tripod.

Swearing under her breath, she caught it and resolved to begin painting.

At one point, Adrien went to the restroom and when he came back, walked behind her to get a glimpse of her work. He meant only to peep briefly, but it peaked his interest. Everyone else was working on these grandiose, cliche expressions of Ladybug and Chat Noir, showing them as infallible and strong. But Mari's picture was set in a regular Paris street, full with regular people: A black-haired girl helping an old man to cross the street. A blonde boy helping children to get their football from a tree. A businessman interrupting a phone call to pick up trash. A tough-looking teenager helping a mother to take her stroller up some stairs. An elderly woman buying a meal for a refugee. All these people, he noticed, cast a shadow resembling Chat Noir or Ladybug. In very small letters, she had written: "heroism is being kind."

She heard him take in an awed breath and turned around, startled. "Ah!"

"Sorry! I didn't mean to pry...I just, it's a really nice painting, Mari."

Marinette was burning in bright, Ladybug red. "Thanks!"

"Really, I... I thought I was the only one who thought that way."

Mari shrugged and scratched the back of her head. "Really? I mean is knotting, I mean, nothing. I mean..." She caught her breath. "I just think... that if they could tell us anything, this is what they would say, you know? Akumas are made because we lose control of ourselves, and sometimes that happens because we forget to be kind to others... and ourselves."

Adrien, who was now sporting flushed cheeks of his own, assented. "Definitely." His heart was beating fast in a way that only happened when he was with Ladybug. It wasn't shocking, because, in his opinion, Marinette was just the type of person that would make a great hero. But it certainly was revealing and strange to know she shared his exact views regarding being a wielder without being a wielder herself.

"And what was your project?" She asked curiously.

"M—my project? Ah... yeah, it's stupid. It's not as good as yours."

She beamed at him. "Don't say that I'm sure it's great."

He bit his lip. "You wanna see it?"

She grinned. "Yeah!"

"But you have to promise you won't laugh."

She shook her head vigorously, causing her pigtails to bob, and walked over to Adrien's station. His project was simple but powerful. It was a digital image, the silhouettes of Chat Noir and Ladybug, but when you looked closer, they were filled by text. They were famous quotes from historical figures.

"'I'm not afraid, I was born to do this.' Joan d'Arc," she said. "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

"Oskar Schindler," he said ominously. "All the quotes are from previous owners of the Miraculous. Some were not so known, though."

She widened her eyes, feeling a lump in her throat. "Really?"

"Hm-hmm. But I got to say, I didn't know about all of them. Most of the credit should go to Alix's brother. He helped me with the research, apparently they're doing this whole track-down at his university and he threw me a bone. I just had to fill in some gaps."

"Though hopeless as it may be, I shan't give in to fear," she read another one.

"Though futile as it may seem, I shall remain rooted. Tonantzin the Aztec," Adrien said. "An indigenous girl the times of European conquest."

"This must have taken you so much time to put together, Adrien."

He shrugged with a small smile. "Only a little bit. It was interesting though. I never knew the Miraculous had been wielded in so many historical events. It's... I don't know, sobering."

"It's very thoughtful."

They smiled at each other, both feeling a familiarity they couldn't quite explain. The moment was interrupted by the arrival of the video participants.

"All right class, please stop what you're doing, I need your attention. While Alya and Nino set up the equipment, I will hand you a number so you know how much time you have to wait outside. Okay? So please, either hand your completed assignments or take them outside so you can work while you wait.

"I better save this up," Adrien said. "I'm done anyway."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, me too."

The recording started with Nino and Alya who were going to be monitoring the whole recording anyway. They were followed by Adrien, who had to leave early, as usual, then Marc, Sabrina, Choe, Juleka, and Marinette. Then it was Max, Kim, Ivan, Nath, Rose, Mylenne, some kids from the grade after them, and finally, Nath, who had no rush to go anywhere.

Alya and Nino stayed up until very late at night to edit everything and put the video together for the next morning. They both seemed terrible, but the final product was definitely worth it. Nino had composed music specifically for the project and Alya had put her mad editing skills to good use. The result was a piece that had Marinette and Adrien smiling from ear to ear. Not because of them, but because of what everyone else had to say.

"What do you admire the most about Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

Alya said that they fear nothing. Nino, that they protect everyone. Nath said that he admired their sacrifice. Chloe, as surprising as it was, that they inspired her. Then came Mari.

"What I admire the most about Chat Noir is that he is very kind to akuma victims and to those that caused them because he understands we sometimes say or do things we don't mean to, and there's always a way to make things right."

"And Ladybug?"

"I admire that she sets an example for people who might be feeling lost or scared, and inspires them to become a better version of themselves."

"Adrien, what do you admire about our heroes?"

"I admire Ladybug's bravery. Because behind the mask she is a girl like anyone else. I'm sure she was afraid the first time she had to be Ladybug, but she pushed her fears aside to save everyone. I really look up to that.

"For Chat Noir..." He shrugged. "I like his suit?" He chuckled a bit. "I guess I admire the fact that he knows how to juggle the responsibility of his cataclysm. He's an idi—a dork, but at the same time knows that being a hero is not all fun and games."

Everyone clapped and cheered at the end of the video, both because Alya and Nino did such a good job and because the bell rang, marking the end of the day and the beginning of the long weekend. Alya, Nino, Adrien, and Mari walked together, as Alya had arranged for them to hang out at her house after school.

They were commenting on what everybody had said and what a great job everyone had done in their projects, sharing the excitement for the party.

"So, at what time should we meet?" Alya said.

"For what?" Mari asked.

"Oh no, no, no. You two are not ditching us for the festival. Girl, I told you to save the date like, a billion years ago. And you, banana head, you best be coming along or I will personally slap your dad and his entire entourage."

Adrien laughed. "That would be kind of funny to watch. Except I don't condone violence. And uh, sorry Alya, but I've been trying to convince my dad and he still isn't budging. I think I'm going to have to sit it out."

Alya rolled her eyes, muttering something about how Child Services ought to check his case. "Okay, so Adrien is under house arrest until his thirty, but you have absolutely no excuse, Marinette. You-."

"Hey, Mari," said Nath, hurrying to catch up with the quartet.

"Hey, you! You popped out of nowhere."

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Uh... sure. I'll be a minute, guys."

"...You have no excuse unless someone asks you on a date," she whispered loud enough that Nino and Adrien could hear.

Marinette rolled her eyes and smirked. "Nath is just a friend, Alya." She added more quietly, "Plus you know he's into Marc now, silly."

In that very moment, Adrien had an out-of-body experience. That phrase didn't sound the same when he saw how Nathaniel asked Marinette to the festival right in front of his face. He'd use it plenty of times to refer to Marinette. He wasn't so sure it was true anymore, though. For some inexplicable reason, because he still loved Ladybug with all his heart, he felt utterly frustrated at himself. And yes, if he has to admit it, he felt a tiny bit jealous of Nath.

In no moment in time had Adrien wished more to be wearing his enhanced ears. Judging by his body language, he was definitely asking her out.

"So, Marc is going to be busy for most of the thing helping his family run their booth and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. We can hang out with Marc after he's done."

"Aren't you in the process of becoming a thing? I don't want to be a third wheel. Besides, I, uh... I'm already kind of going with someone else."

He rolled his eyes. "Please don't tell me it's Agreste."

She snorted. "I wish. No, it's a... friend of mine."

He wiggled his eyebrows. "Didn't know you were in the process of becoming 'a thing.'"

"It's not like that. We're just uh... good buddies."

"Okay, then I can tag along!"

"No!... I mean, no... you can't." Dammit, he had her cornered.

"Why?"

"Because."

"Come on, please Mari. If there's anything worse than going to a function as a third wheel, it's going alone."

"You can ask Nino and Alya," she offered.

"How is that any better? Please, Mari..."

She sighed, knowing how fast gossip ran around the school and knowing she would regret this. "Okay, fine. You caught me. I am going on a date. That's why you can't come. It's a date. Happy?"

He smirked. "Who is it?"

"Ugh, Chat Noir, you nosy thing! I'm not gonna tell you," she laughed. "Sorry Nath, really. I'll make it up to you. But I gotta go right now. Alya is going to drill me just as it is."

"Fine, I'll take the name of the mystery man and a month's ration of Dupain pastries as an offering!" He screamed at her as she walked back to the others, grinning mischievously.

"Nath!"

"YOU. ARE. GOING... ON A DATE."

Marinette rubbed her temples as they walked towards the metro.

"No, no. Let me get this straight. You. Marinette Dupain Cheng. You're going... on a date. With someone not only we don't know, but that you've never told me about. How did you meet this man, huh? Do your parents know about this? Was it Tinder? Are you acting out? Do we need to have an intervention?"

"Nino, what's a Tinder?" Adrien asked in a whisper as they witnessed the raw force of nature that was Alya's rant.

"Oh buddy, that's a lecture for another time." Nino patted Adrien on the back.

"For the last time, I'm not on Tinder, Alya."

"Is it Luka?"

"Alya!" she hissed. "You are being so inappropriate right now! All you need to know is that he's a good friend of mine, okay? That's all. He's from uh... from before you arrived. You don't know him."

"Well, I sure as hell hope I do soon!"

Alya eventually dropped the subject and the afternoon transitioned into an amicable evening with junk food and video games. Adrien, however, kept glancing at Marinette. He was curious to know, and yes a little jealous.

Eventually, it came the time for everyone to go home. Nino lived a few blocks away from Alya so he didn't need to take the metro back. It only left Adrien and Marinette. To say the least, it was an uncomfortable ride.

Adrien shifted on his seat and smiled apologetically when he unintentionally perturbed Marinette.

"l hope you enjoy your date," he said, not really meaning.

"Thanks. You're not going to the festival?"

"To tell you the truth, I also agreed to go with someone, but it's also a secret."

Marinette felt her heart shatter and only hoped it wasn't too noticeable.

"She's a good friend of mine," he said, actually for her benefit.

Marinette nodded, not really wanting to know the details but having curiosity get the best of her. "And... you—you two are dating?"

Adrien blushed a little and laughed. "No, it's not like that. I mean, I thought it was but... She's not into me."

"She's an idiot," Marinette blurted out without being able to help yourself and immediately covered her mouth. "Sorry."

Adrien laughed. "It's okay. I think I'm starting to come to terms with it. There are different kinds of love, I suppose. I'm still hopeful, though." He chuckled. "What about your friend. What's his name?"

She rolled her eyes. "Not you too. I already started my own gossip, don't need another vector."

"I don't gossip," he said smugly. "I know how to keep a secret."

"Oh, is that so?"

Adrien smiled. "I'm just healthily concerned about my friend, is all. Nino did explain to me what a Tinder was and we do live in Paris, after all."

Marinette laughed. "It's Chat Noir, so stop bothering," she said cheekily, knowing the best way to hide something was out in the open.

Adrien's heart skipped a beat, though, excited at the unlikely possibility she might be telling the truth.

"You're messing with me."

"Of course," she said smirking.

"And how is this Chat Noir guy treating you? He takes you out to a nice dinner from time to time?"

"If you must know, it's not like that between 'Chat Noir' and me. He's just my friend. He asked me out before you all, and that was that. No drama, no nothing." Marinette laughed. "And how come you're never this cocky at school? You're giving me more hell than Alya and Nino combined."

He shrugged. "I don't know, I get shy around a lot of people. I know you guys don't mind, so I loosen up a little. The real question here is though, what miraculous cure did you use to get rid of your stutter?"

"Alya slipped wine into my orange soda."

Adrien raised an eyebrow at her. "So we _are_ acting up. Should I walk you home?"

She chuckled. "I'm fine, Adrien. Thanks. My house is literally two blocks away from the metro. And you'd have to get some stations before yours, no?"

Still, the day Mari was mugged came to his mind and worried him. Any person in their right mind wouldn't do the same thing twice. He couldn't tell her that, of course.

"I insist Mari, I heard some people have been mugged in the park next to school. That's by your place, right? I can call my chauffeur to pick me up from your house."

She blushed and blessed Alya for anticipating this moment. "Okay."

The next day, Paris awoke high on adrenaline. It was like Tikki and Plagg had puked all over the city. There was not one inch of it that wasn't covered in something red-black or green-black. Marinette lived several kilometers away from the Eiffel Tower, where the main events would be happening, and she could hear the music all the way from her balcony. She shook her head with a smile, knowing that as cheery as the day promised to be, it would also come with one inevitable akuma or two.

She checked her phone for messages. Her parents had left early to set up the bakery booth and they wanted her to man it for three hours before joining her friends. Alya had also flooded her screen with "I can't believe you won't be here! :C '" and "Girl break a leg and tell me how everything goes!" She shook her head and texted her that she could meet up with her and Nino for a while before her "date."

It would be a long day and she knew that to preserve energy was of the essence. She put on a loose tank she had designed with the word "Cataclysm!" In bright green, a pair of light blue jeans, and her comfiest sneakers. She decided to wear her hair down to put on the cat ear diadem she had made, and yes, she wore a choker with a bell, finally succumbing to the fever. The final touch was, of course, the mask.

She looked at herself and imitated Chat. "You look clawsome, LB! Ugh... No, I don't know how he does it."

She grabbed her purse and packed more cookies than usual, just in case. "Come on, Tikki! It's your day!"

Getting to the festival was a feat in itself. The metro was so crowded Marinette eventually opted to transform and swing to the tower, making the most of the fact there were thousands of Ladybugs flooding the streets. Tending the bakery booth left her exhausted. She had never seen so many people congregated in one single spot, and to be frank she was beginning to get concerned. She only hoped the police was prepared in the event of an accident.

Finding Alya took monumental efforts, especially considering the data towers were being saturated by almost a million phones connected at the same time. She ended up stranded in the middle of the crowd, near where the stage was.

"Alya, I'm near the left speaker on the stage."

"What stage? There's like five different ones"

"The one right under the tower"

"Okie, eta 30 minutes :* "

Marinette put away her phone and decided to get something to eat. After fifteen excruciating minutes, she got some fries and a kebab, which she ended up dropping when someone accidentally bumped into her.

"Aw, seriously?" She exclaimed.

"Sorry!"

"Adrien?" She said, immediately recognizing him under the Ladybug mask. "How—you murdered my kebab!"

"Mari?" He said, pleasantly surprised. "Hey, nice outfit! I like your shirt. Sorry about the kebab. I can get you another one. Wait here."

Some minutes later, he emerged from the hungry mass.

"Here you go, sorry. What are you doing here? I thought you'd be with your date."

"I could ask you the same thing! Also, where do you get this merch? I've never seen it before."

"It's limited edition," he said with a grin. "And by limited edition I mean I may or may not have convinced my dad's interns to design me this stuff."

Marinette laughed. "And you say I act out. Anyway, I'm not supposed to meet my date until some more hours so Alya and Nino are coming this way."

"You liar!" A boy said, faking outrage. It was Nathaniel, sporting an Evillustrator costume. "I knew it was Agreste!"

"Nath? What-."

"Marc's booth is right across your face, I saw you and decided to say hi. Hey Agreste..."

Adrien nodded at him casually.

"Evillustrator?" Mari said. "Very meta of you."

"Thanks, it's supposed to be ironic," he said, without really thinking.

"How is it ironic?" Adrien questioned without missing a heartbeat.

 _Shit_ , Nath thought. "I, uh... I'm an outstanding citizen and akuma no more? Uh... I think I hear Marc calling me... Anyway, nice to say hi, enjoy your date!"

Marinette and Adrien shared confused glances. "That's not ironic," Adrien insisted. Both chuckled.

Nino and Alya eventually met with Adrien and Mari, only to enjoy a few minutes, as it often happens in big events, before Marinette "lost" herself.

Chat Noir and Ladybug had agreed to meet on the mezzanine level of the Eiffel Tower half an hour before Clara Nightingale's show. Punctual as he seldom is, Chat Noir was already waiting, casually leaning against a beam of the tower, when Ladybug arrived.

"There you are, m'lady! I was beginning to suspect you wouldn't come."

"I'm only a few minutes late, you dramatic cat," she said with a smile. "It's impossible to find a spot to transform down there!"

"Ah, so you joined the festivities?"

"And you didn't?"

"Of course, m'lady. Underneath this armor, I'm wearing Ladybug merchandise from head to toe."

Ladybug laughed heartily. "Now, that, I'd like to see."

"Hmm, yes. Too bad we bowed to keep our identities secret until death does us part."

"So dramatic," she rolled her eyes, amused.

"Come, I have a surprise for you."

Ladybug widened her eyes in surprise. "Oh, Chat, I'm so sorry... I didn't bri-."

"No, no, it's okay. Come on, I just want you to see it."

He led her away from the edge of the floor and near to a staircase, where he had set up a small picnic.

"Chat..."

"Don't worry, there's no love declaration this time, LB," he said as he sat down and beckoned her to join him on one of the cushions.

Ladybug had to admit hearing him saying that broke her heart a little bit.

"You keep turning down my invitations to hang out so I just figured... this one time..." He scratched his head. "It sounds way more coercive now that I say it out loud... I just wanted to have a nice memory with you, and to let you know that... well, I'm sorry if I haven't been the most helpful partner lately. Master Fu said the days of us being alone are gone because soon we will be joined by others, I just wanted to tell you that I'm really happy we got thrown into this together and that you're my best friend. And I'm sorry if I've been a nag about the whole romance thing. I... I really am trying to move on. I just hope we can still be friends."

Ladybug was speechless. She didn't know how to process it, she couldn't decide if she liked what she heard or if it shattered her into a million pieces. She was very good at hiding her emotions from the targets of her affection, even as a civilian. And while she had intended for Chat to believe that there was no chance they could ever be together for the sake of Paris, the truth was that, deep down, if she was honest—really honest with herself, she knew that Chat actually had a solid chance against Adrien. It's not like she could ever tell him, it would be very unfair to do so now. But it still tugged at her heartstrings.

"Of course, Chat." She took his hand. "We'll always be best friends. We're ying and yang, after all. And uh... don't worry about the romance thing. I, uh... I don't know if I should tell you this because there's no use for this information but, I guess if we had met out of costume, or if the stakes weren't so high, I guess we could've..."

"Could've what?"

"You know, be together, like you wanted."

"Oh..." Chat looked out to the mass of people celebrating. "Well, like Master Fu said, sometimes you have to rise above your own heart's desire, for the common good. I guess you understood that faster than I did," he said with a smirk.

"Don't beat yourself over it." She squeezed his hand.

Ladybug sighed and pulled her legs towards herself as she appreciated the view.

"You know, being Ladybug really changed my life."

"Same here."

"I know we're not supposed to talk about our personal life, but I guess... since it's a special occasion."

Chat nodded. "My lips are sealed, m'lady."

"It's nothing too revealing, it's just that, Ladybug has made me... I don't know, braver out of costume. Like, there's this girl at school that used to bully me, right? And ever since I became Ladybug I take none of her crap anymore. Of course, I'm still a certified mess that trips over flat surfaces but at least I got a backbone now."

"It's hard for me to imagine you like that," Chat admitted with a warm smile. "But I know what you mean. Believe it or not, underneath this tasteful leather costume, I am a quiet, straight-A student, model son. Never stir up trouble, always behave politely."

Ladybug chuckled. "You're right, it's hard to imagine."

"I'm a complete nerd, actually."

"Stop!" She laughed. "No more details!"

"I watch animes and the whole thing. I run like Naruto around my house."

"Chat!"

"I keep telling you, m'lady, I'm a catch."

She had to take a minute to stop laughing. "Silly cat."

He shrugged, happy he had made her laugh like that.

"You're right, we should do this more often."

"Don't lie to yourself, hanging out in terraces to "patrol" so often is the reason we have made zero progress on Hawkmoth," he said, smirking.

"Perhaps. But still."

"Alright everybody, give it up for Clara Nightingale!" Roared the master of ceremonies.

"That's our cue, LB." He helped get on her feet.

"So as usual? I go left, you go right?"

He winked. "Yup!"

The music started and Clara went on the stage, causing for the multitude to roar in applause. "Hello everybody! Thank you for inviting me to this wonderful celebration! I just wanna take a moment to shout out to our favorite duo, Ladybug and Chat Noir for protecting this wonderful city from evil. Can we give it up for Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

The crowd went wild.

"Awesome, awesome. Now, I want to dedicate this song to our two beloved heroes and hope that wherever they are right now, that they enjoy it. I also want to invite you guys to join the stage, if they're here with us tonight. Ladybug, Chat Noir, this one is for you!"

As the beat began, the tower began lighting up in pulses, alternating between bright red and neon green. As it picked up the pace, projectors covered it black dots that transformed into Ladybug's miraculous ladybugs, swarmed the tower, and were reflected onto the sky as if it had been swept by a real Miraculous Cure. Once it was cleared, cat paws appeared as if a real cat was climbing. The prints dissolved into a mist and then transformed into the silhouettes of the two heroes. That was the last section of the projection, Ladybug, and Chat been observing the rehearsals. They knew that just as it started again, fireworks would go off along with the beat.

"Ready when you are, LB," Chat said through their communicator. "They're gonna go wild."

"Wait for the next beat, as we rehearsed."

"Three..." Ladybug counted.

"Two..." Followed Chat.

"One!" They both exclaimed.

Just in time, they swung and vaulted out of the tower, making sure everyone got a glimpse of them. They had to be careful not to attach to weak structures or to land the baton on someone's foot, but after a whole year practicing, they were reasonably seasoned with their weapons. The cameras caught glimpse of their acrobatics and displayed them on the screens across the festival, to which people started screaming their lungs out. They chanted their names. Ladybug thought was kind of amusing.

"I tell ya, not even Adrien Agreste gets this kind of attention," Ladybug told Chat Noir.

He laughed through his communicator. "Of course not, he's just a model! Heads up, the song's about to finish. Let's see how you stick your landing, Ladybug."

In sync with the tune, they each landed on either side of the Eiffel Tower, perched atop the beams that now emitted firework smoke and ready to disappear into the night.

"Oh no, no, don't think you will run so easy, Ladybug and Chat Noir," said the master of ceremony. "It might not look like it, but this is a ball. And a ball requires an opening dance! Come on down and join us! Come down to say hi to your fans!"

They reunited at the middle of the tower and waved. The crowd cheered, leaving Chat and Lady deaf.

"We don't have to do it if you don't want," he said.

She looked at him and noticed the faint blush that crept from underneath his mask. She held his glance for a good, thoughtful moment, considered the best course of action, and let her lips stretch in a warm smile for him when she decided what she'd do. "I'll go if you do," Ladybug said.

It wasn't her place, but she felt responsible for part of Chat's insecurity that lately had been crutching the team. Chat had always been the first to cheer for her, to plunge into battle along with her, blindly trusting her choices -most of the time. He praised her because he knew how unsure she was. She called her out when she needed to. And yes, she'd always have Alya, but Chat was a different type of best friend. The type you'd trust your life with. And judging by the evidence, she had done a poor job at communicating that imperative fact of life.

It had been a year since she became Ladybug since she met Chat since she had a partner. A partner she owed more than she ever let him know, although by accident. He deserved to know how important he was for her, to be certain of it. If he wanted to dance, she'd dance with him.

"It's like you say, give them what they want." She smirked, but then caught herself. No, that didn't sound right. "I-I mean, yeah. I want to dance."

Chat smiled brightly at her and nodded.

The crowd cheered as they let the VIP guests into the dancefloor at the stage and Chat gently pulled Ladybug closer to him.

"They'll be talking about this for another year," Chat said, chuckling.

"We should give them a run for their money," she winked, taking Chat Noir aback and causing for his blush to creep lower into his face, though quickly overcoming it with a flirty confidence.

"You're in luck because I happen to be a great dancer."

Ladybug didn't let it show, but Marinette had never danced with someone like that. Yes, there was that one time with Adrien, and she loved him warts and all, but bless his soul that boy didn't know how to tell left from right. And yet despite the fact, things didn't work out the way she thought, she couldn't bring herself to dislike the outcome so far. For once, she let Chat Noir take the lead, and was not surprised when he proved to be more than capable to sway, twirl, and dip her according to the beat.

The lyrics of the song did not help either.

Clara Nightingale, who dressed in a revealing leather top and skirt, with a pair of cat ears, a mask, and a black choker adorned with a tiny bell, winked at them.

"Another victim of the choker fad," she told Chat. "You have no idea how much I despise you for making it cool to wear that choker with that little bell."

"It's a fad? Look at me, being a fashion icon."

"It's tasteless," she said, rolling her eyes. "Although in your defense I'm wearing one today. But just today."

Chat laughed. "Suuuuure, whatever you say."

There was a reason why she kept a safe distance between her and Chat. There was a reason why she never let his flirting get to his head. She wasn't dumb, and to the extent of her knowledge, she remained a fully-fledged, fully hormonal teenage girl. And certain things, for her were evident: Chat Noir was a very handsome boy, he was smart, funny (even though she would never admit it to his face), a gentleman. Chat Noir was many things, so yes, the flirting might have gotten a bit to her head the first few times it happened. They would have worked if she hadn't put a stop when she caught herself in the act of actually developing feelings for him when she first met him.

The crowd chanted their names at the end of their dance.

"Give it up for our favorite heroes!" the singer exclaimed.

They did a tiny bow and waved. Then Ladybug did something stupid: in the midst of the euphoria, full of endorphins, she placed a kiss on Chat's cheek.

He glanced at her and did not know what to make of her blush.

Ladybug didn't like him, at least not the way he liked her. That kiss was for the cameras, so he played his role and gently put an arm around her waist.

"Thank you, Paris, for this wonderful gift!" Ladybug said when the master of ceremonies handed them a microphone after the song. "Chat Noir and I are very thankful for all your support. And more than anything, we are happy to be part of this city!"

"Ladybug, Ladybug!" The crowd chanted.

She caught Chat staring at her adoringly, much to his bad luck.

She handed him the mike. "Your turn," she muttered.

"They're saying your name."

"Then they'll also have to say yours."

Chat smiled and grabbed the mike. The multitude roared in glee, and Chat could do little to hide his smile. "Thank you, guys! Like Ladybug says, we are happy to be part of Paris. And we are very happy to be your heroes. Thank you for putting up this great party for us, we really appreciate it!"

"And now, we must go," said Ladybug, standing on her tiptoes to reach the level where Chat held the microphone.

There was a unisonal "Awww!"

"So soon?" said the master of ceremonies. "But we're just getting started!"

"Oh don't worry, we'll hang around, you just won't be able to see us," said Chat Noir.

"As civilians?" the host said.

They nodded and the host gasped. "Care to say who?"

"If we told you," Ladybug said.

"It wouldn't be a secret," Chat finished the sentence with a wink. He handed the microphone back and made a bowing gesture for Ladybug. "After you, my lady!"

Ladybug waved and slung her yo-yo, propelling herself onto the skies in mere seconds, closely followed by Chat Noir.

As soon as they left and as if on cue, there was a huge explosion in the Seine somewhere near the first Arrondissement. The crowd's confusion immediately became panic as a monster made out of the sediments and drainage of the river made way towards the festival. It was accompanied by a blue figure that sported a peafowl costume.

Ladybug and Chat Noir, who had gone up to the top of the tower to assess the situation, stared petrified at the sight.

"Ladybug," Chat Noir said almost trembling, as his memory connected two and two together. "That's the Peafowl Miraculous."

"What? How do you know?"

"I just do."


End file.
